
Class .__.^0„3 6 
Copyright N^ 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



FRUIT HARVESTING 
STORING, MARKETING 



OTHER BOOKS BY THE 
SAME AUTHOR : .• .- 

Landscape 
Gardening 



Plums and 
Plum Culture 



FRUIT HARVESTING 
STORING, MARKETING 



A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO THE PICK- 
ING, SORTING, PACKING, STORING, 
SHIPPING, AND MARKETING OF 
FRUIT ; ; ; ; / / ; ; ; / 



A"^ 



f/ajVVaugh 



ILLUSTRATED 



NEW YORK 

ORANGE JUDD COMPANY 
1901 



THE LIBRARY OF 

CONGRESS, 
Two CoHita Received 

SEP. 11 1901 

COPYRIQHT ENTRY 

CLAsC^^XXc. N<s 

COPY a 



Copyright 
Nineteen Hundred and Oni 

BY 

F. A. WAUGH 



■ * c ' • ' ' ' 



nSo 







cSj'.^:o 



nA 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



Part One— THE FRUIT MARKET 

PAGE 

I. The Two Markets 4 

II. The Market Problems 6 

III. Commission Men 8 

IV. The Foreign Market 12 

V. Selling Associations — Pools I7 

VI. The Home Market 22 

VII. Production and Price 25 

VIII. Utilization of Wastes 31 

Part Two— PICKlko 

I. Time to Pick 43 

II. Picking Receptacles 46 

III. Stems On or Off 47 

IV. Conveniences and Inconveniences 48 

V. Managing Pickers 52 

Part Threk— GRADING AND PACKING 

I. The Practice of Grading 60 

II. What is First-grade Fruit? 61 

III. The Designation of Grades 63 

IV. Sorting Tables 65 

V. Good Judgment in Grading 66 

VI. Filling the Package 67 

Part Four— THE FRUIT PACKAGE 

I. The American Fruit Package 73 

II. The Apple Barrel 74 

III. Berry Packages 77 

IV. The Grape Basket . . 79 

V. Peach Packages 80 

VI. Apples in Boxes 83 

VII. Other Fruits and Packages 86 

vii 



Vlll 



CONTENTS 



VIII. Summary of Packages 
IX. Wrapping Fruits 
X. Marks on Packages . 



I. 

II. 

III. 

IV. 

V. 

VI. 

VII. 

VIII. 

IX. 

X. 

XL 

XII. 

XIII. 

XIV. 

XV. 

XVI. 

XVII. 

XVIII. 

XIX. 



Part Fivk— FRUIT STORAGE 

Requirements 

Systems of Storage 

Handling the Fruit 

Temperatures 

Grape Storage 

Storing Vegetables 

Storage in Pits . 

Storage in "Dugouts" or 

Mr. T. L. Kinney's House 

A Canadian Fruit House 

Professor Alwood's Storage House 

A Nova Scotia House 

Mr. T. B. Wilson's House 

Mrs. L. E. Allen's Storage House 

Notes on Various Storage Houses 

Design for Simple Lean-to Storage 

Design for Commodious Hillside Storage 

Design for a Thousand-barrel Storage House 

Special Design for Arthur H. Hill . 



88 
89 



95 
97 
109 
no 
112 
114 
117 
121 
124 
128 
131 
138 
141 
144 
146 
155 
157 
161 
165 



Part Six— APPENDIX 

I. Imports and Exports of Fruits, United States . 
11. Exports of Apples from Canada . . . . 



171 

175 

III. State Fruit-package Laws 176 

IV. Apple Shippers' Rules 186 

V. The National League of Commission Merchants 

of the United States i8g 

VI. Commission Charges 206 

VII. Shipment in Refrigerator Cars 206 

VIII. The Apple Crop and Market 212 

IX. The Cranberry Crop 217 

X. Handling Southern Grapes 220 

Index 223 



PART ONE 

The Fruit Market 



THE FRUIT MARKET 



It is of prime Importance that the man who ex- 
pects to grow fruit for sale shall understand the fruit 
market and its requirements. For this reason the 
discussion of picking, grading, packing, storing, ship- 
ping, etc., may be postponed until this more funda- 
mental matter has been investigated. When one 
knows where his fruit is going and what is to be ex- 
pected of it, he can the more intelligently prepare to 
meet the needs and the whims of his customers. 

Fruit growing for market has increased enormously 
in extent, and has greatly advanced in its methods 
during the past twenty years. At the present time it 
employs vast sums of capital, furnishes a liveli- 
hood to armies of men, and yields, on the whole, 
tremendous profits. 

The most characteristic development of the fruit 
industry in the United vStates has been along the lines 
of the wholesale trade, the peculiarities of which are 
set forth below. At the present time it is unquestion- 
ably true that America leads the world in the produc- 
tion of fruit in large quantities and in the perfection 
with which this fruit is distributed to distant points. 

The fruit business in general in the United States 



2 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

has increased in much greater proportion than other 
agricultural industries. The following figures, show- 
ing the percentage of increase in total production of 
various agricultural crops in the United States between 
1850 and 1897, are compiled from a chart in Fairchild's 
Rural Wealth and Welfare : * 

PER CENT INCREASE 

Oats 551 Tobacco 313 

Wheat 465 Rye 198 

Hay 376 Buckwheat .... 163 

Corn 557 Sweet potatoes . . 112 

Cotton 355 Sugar loi 

Potatoes 331 Rice 60 

Butter 323 Barley .... 1,506 

Fruits .... 2,000 



The increase of total population in the country dur- 
ing the same period was 270 per cent. 

But while the increased production of fruit in the 
United States as a whole has been thus enormous, it 
has been proportionately still greater in the recog- 
nized fruit sections. Fifty years ago there were no 
fruit sections. Now there are neighborhoods prac- 
tically given up to the growing of strawberries, other 
localities engaged almost exclusively in peach culture, 
and still other communities in which the apple is the 
staple crop. In the eastern states, near the large 
cities and in the neighborhood of manufacturing 
towns, the progress of the fruit growing industry is 



* Fairchild, Rural Wealth and Welfare, 11. New York, 1900. 



THE FRUIT MARKET 3 

something marvelous. The following statistics * show 
something of the trend of agricultural affairs in 
Massachusetts: 



VALUE OF AGRICULTURAL PROPERTY IN MASSACHUSETTS 
COMPARISON OF 1885 WITH 1895 



CLASSIFICATION 

Total property . . . 

Land 

Machines, implements, 

etc 

Buildings 

Domestic animals, etc. . 
Fruit-trees and vines . 



Total value 

1885 

$216,230,550 
110,700,707 

7,397,990 
74.418,218 

17,055.153 
6,658,482 



Total value 

1895 

$219,957,214 
110,271,859 

8,128,031 
77.920,357 
14,854,417 

7,924,878 



Per cent 

increase 

or decrease 

+ 1.72 

- 0.39 

+ 9.87 
+ 4.71 

— 12.90 
+ 19.02 



VALUE OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS IN MASSACHI 
COMPARISON OF 1885 WITH 1895 



^. , „ , , .^.^.r Total value Total value 

CLASSIFICATION ^gg^ ^g^^ 

Total products .... $47,756,033 $52,880,431 

Dairy products . . . 13,080,526 16,234,049 

Hay, straw, and fodder . 11,631,776 12,491,090 

Cereals 1,855,145 1,104,578 

Fruits, berries, and nuts 2.252,748 2,850,585 

Vegetables 5,227,194 6,389,533 

Nursery products . . . 138,439 182,906 
Hothouse and hotbed 

products . ' . . . . 73,983 97.227 

Greenhouse products . 688,813 1,749,070 



Per cent 

increase 

or decrease 

+ 10.73 

+ 24.11 

+ 7.39 
— 40.46 
+ 6.33 
+ 22.24 
32.12 



4- 



i- 31-42 
-h 153-92 



Inasmuch as the development of a fruit growing 



* Census of Massachusetts, 1895, pp. 331-333. Massachusetts Bureau of 
Statistics and I,abor. Boston, 1899. 



4 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

industry is oftenest confined to a comparative!}^ small 
locality or a single neighborhood, the statistics of 
smaller territories would be more instructive than the 
statistics of an entire state. Take, for example, the 
statistics of Plymouth County, Mass., drawn from 
the same source as the figures compiled above: 

VALUE OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS IN PLYMOUTH COUNTY, 
MASS. COMPARISON OF 1885 WITH 1895 

Total value Total value 
CLASSIFICATION ^nc,, ,q^^ increase 

^^^5 i«95 or decrease 

Total products .... $2,343,878 $3,241,023 + 38.28 

Dairy products . . . . 585,017 731,869 + 20.09 

Hothouse and hotbed . 1,805 1,877 + 3-99 

Greenhouse products . 8,833 28,845 +226.56 

Nursery products . . . 9,358 21,696 + 131-84 

Fruits, berries, and nuts 172,144 694,984 +303.72 

Cereals 51.820 20,887 — 59.69 • 

Hay, straw, and fodder 506,775 626,762 -f- 22.68 

I. THE TWO MARKETS 

The fruit markets of the United States may be 
divided rather sharply into two classes. The first of 
these may be called the indirect, general, or wholesale 
market. The second may be distinguished as the 
direct, special, or retail market. The two are very 
different in almost all their characteristics, and these 
differences are of inevitable weight to the fruit 
grower. Wherefore it will be profitable here to set 
forth these distinctions with the strongest and most 
convenient antithesis. The two markets differ, then, 
in the following particulars : 

I. Quantity. — The general market handles fruits 



THE FRUIT MARKET 5 

in large quantities ; the special market in small quan- 
tities. 

2. Margi7i of profit. — In the general market the 
profit on each bushel or quart or package is much less 
(usually) than in the special market. 

3. Salesmaii. — The fruit grower who grows fruit 
in large quantities for the general market sells it 
through a commission man. He never reaches the 
final customer. The man who grows fruit in small 
quantities for a special market frequently, or usually, 
sells to the customer direct. He is his own salesman. 
He thus becomes more immediately responsible for his 
goods. 

4. Competition. — In the general market one meets 
the competition of the world. The price of apples in 
London is influenced by the crop in Tasmania, New 
Zealand, Canada, or the United States. The price in 
London (sometimes) influences the price in New York. 
Missouri apples in the general market meet the apples 
from Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and New 
York. In the special market the fruit grower meets 
only local competition ; and when regular customers 
are secured, even this competition is eliminated. 

5. Varieties. — The general market demands a few 
varieties. The private market demands more, and will 
accept an almost unlimited number. Furthermore, 
the general market demands standard varieties — those 
which are knowai, and which are commonly offered in 
such quantities as to have a regular rating. The pri- 
vate market cares not whether a variety is a standard 
or not, so it suits the customer. 



6 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

6. Quality. — The general market gives adequate 
consideration to appearance, but pays little attention to 
quality. Ben Davis and Kieffer, proverbially inferior 
in quality, are standard and profitable market sorts. 
In the direct or private market quality is a matter of 
first importance. Appearance counts for less. 

7. Shippi7ig quality. — Fruit for the general market 
must be such as will bear shipment and much rough 
handling. That for the private market need not sub- 
mit to this tCvSt. 

8. Package. — The wholesale market requires a 
standard package. Almost any neat, clean package 
may be used in the diredl market, and sometimes fruit 
is delivered in bulk, from sacks, boxes, barrels or bas- 
kets, without any package. In the wholesale market 
a gift package is practically always required. The 
man who has private customers frequently has his 
boxes or baskets returned to him. 

9. Season. — The general market accepts fruits only 
in season. There is no sale for Fameuse apples after 
Christmas, and no general sale for strawberries before 
April. The private market often pays extra for fruit 
out of season. The sales of strawberries which are 
made every year during Januar)^ and February are 
made to special customers. Such berries do not come 
into the general market. 

II. THE MARKET PROBI^EMS 

There are several successive problems which face 
the man who grows fruit for sale, whether he have in 



THK FRUIT MARKET 7 

view the general or the special market. The principal 
problems are the following: 

1. Growi7ig the fruit. — The fruit must be grown 
before it can be sold, and fruit growing is a long, long 
art. Dozens and dozens of books have been written 
on this subject alone, which is one reason why we may 
devote this entire book to another subject. The pro- 
duction of fruit for market is quite a different problem 
from the growing of fruit for home use. It differs 
most conspicuously in the fact that the market grower 
must always count the expense to see that it is kept 
below the cash returns. The man who grows fruit 
for his own gratification may do so without regard to 
expense. (Sometimes he does it without much regard 
to the fruit!) 

2. Gradmg. — Fruit for home use is seldom sorted 
and never graded. For market grading is indispens- 
able. We shall devote a chapter to this subject. 

3. Packing. — "The package sells the fruit" has 
come to be a fundamental doctrine of the American 
fruit trade. The selection of a suitable package and 
the attractive installation of the fruit in it are the best 
'* tricks of the trade." 

4. Storage. — All fruits, except those which are so 
perishable as altogether to prevent it, are frequently 
stored for longer or shorter periods. This permits the 
grower (or buyer) to regulate the supply of fruit to 
suit the demand. Glutting of the market is prevented, 
and better prices are realized. The subject of storage 
is fully treated in Part V. 



8 FRUIT HARVKSTING, STORING, MARKETING 

5. Transportatio7i. — No other one condition so 
positively determines the nature, the locahzation, and 
the profits of fruit growing as transportation. FaciHties 
and rates are both of paramount importance. This 
subject is one which does not admit of much general- 
ization. Shipping facilities are different for every rail- 
road station, and rates also vary considerably. 

6. Discovery of the right market. — Finally the man 
who has fruit to sell must find the man who wants to 
buy it. Porter apples sell well in Boston, but are not 
wanted in New York ; Tolman Sweet sells in Phila- 
delphia, but can't be given away in Rochester. In a 
more general way it may be said that the man who 
has grown many fancy varieties for a special market 
must find his private customers. It will not do for 
him to ship to a city commission man. Equally the 
man who has grown large quantities of standard sorts, 
like Ben Davis and Kieffer, need not search for a 
fancy home trade. I know a man who has 1,000 to 
2,000 barrels of fine apples every year, and who is dis- 
gusted that he can not sell them in his home town for 
as much as they will bring in New York. But the 
fact and the explanation is that his whole business is 
run on the general market plan. 

III. COMMISSION MEN 

Fruit which goes into the general or wholesale 
market is practically all handled through the media- 
tion of the commission man. As the general market 
is the one most sought in America, it follow^s that the 
commission man has flourished and multiplied and re- 
plenished the earth. His presence seems to be ab- 



THE FRUIT MARKET 9 

solutely necessary to the sale of fruit in large quantities, 
though growers have mostly come to regard his pres- 
ence as a necessary evil. According to the ordinary 
practice, the grower ships his strawberries, his plums, 
or muskmelons to a certain commission man in the 
city — say to Murphy & McBride, of Baltimore. 
Murphy & McBride send a postal card acknowledging 
the receipt of the shipment, and specifying that the 
fruit was received in good or bad condition, as the 
cavSe may be. When the fruit is sold they make their 
returns to the shipper. If Murphy & McBride are 
honest and solvent the returns are made promptly, ac- 
companied by a check for the balance due the shipper. 
The memorandum returned to the shipper shows the 
packages of fruit sold, the selling price of each lot, 
and the gross amount received. Express or freight 
charges are deducted, as is also the commission charged. 
The accompanying copy of an account sales will give 
a clearer idea of the transaction. 

This arrangement works very well if the commis- 
sion house is thoroughly honest, and if — a condition 
equally important — the fruit shipper is also honest. 
As soon as either one begins to cheat the whole basis 
of the business is immediately destroyed and the most 
deplorable results follow. Unfortunately the stren- 
uous competition among commission men, as well as 
the profound duplicity of many consignors, forces 
every commission house with the least pregnable con- 
science into some form or other of cheating. The 
simplest trick, of course, is to sell a consignment of 
fruit for a hundred dollars and return only seventy - 
five. But there are hundreds of others quite as effect- 



lO FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

ive and equally well known to the experienced fruit 
dealer. The result, as a whole, has been to give the 
commission men the reputation among fruit growers 
of a band of unprincipled thieves. Sometimes this 



<^cil^uA=Z^l 



fffi/ 



C. W. KINNEY, 

FRUITS, + PKOBUCE, * ETC, 



276 WASHINGTON STREET. 




^/ r-V 

Commission,. 4^f, J ^ "^ j^ 

VNetProceeas^^' Jf^ ^ 

FIG. I — ACCOUNT SALES FROM A NEW YORK COMMISSION HOUSF. 

reputation is deserved. Much oftener it is not. Some- 
times the shipper is as bad as the commission man. 

This organization of the fruit trade is certainly far 
from ideal. The shipper is completely at the mercy 
of the commission man. The whole bargain is on one 
side of the transaction. It will take a long time, how- 
ever, to change matters to another system. The 
present writer certainly disclaims any intention of 
offering a new system. If the following suggestions 



THE FRUIT MARKET II 

are carefully observed, however, it will go far toward 
mitigating the evils which one meets in dealing with 
commission men : 

1. Stick to 07ie man. — If it seems necessary to ship 
to two or three markets — as to Pittsburg, Philadel- 
phia, and New York — stick to a single commission 
house in each city, but, as far as possible, ship to a 
single market. The man who is conducting business 
on a very large scale, like J. H. Hale or Roland Mor- 
ril, and who can keep his hand on the commission 
men, can afford to transgress this rule. Such men are 
superior to all rules. Most of us are not. For the 
ordinary fruit grower and shipper this rule of dealing 
always with one commission firm is of the utmost con- 
sequence. 

2. Ship the sa7ne varieties j^ear after year, and make 
the grade just as uniform as possible. Even if some- 
thing short of the best fruit is shipped, uniformity of 
grade is highly advantageous. The commission house 
knows w^hat to expect, and customers get used to the 
brand and the grade. There are hundreds of shippers 
growing all classes of fruits whose products are com- 
monly already sold when they arrive in the market. 
Uniform and honest packing does it. 

3. Select a brand which is neat, catchy, and not 
too large, and see that it goes on every package. 
Some men have made reputations and money out of 
their brands. 

4. Grade and pack with the most rigid honesty. — 
Don't try to cheat a commission man. It can't be 



12 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

done. The commission man has the last turn, and he 
is absolutely sure to protect himself, whatever happens 
to the shipper. Moreover, any evidence of dishonesty 
immediately destroys the dealer's confidence in that 
consignor, and selling is seriously interfered with. 
Thereafter packages must be opened and examined 
before they are sold, and they are not offered to the 
best customers. 

5. Follow the advice of the coymnission mail as far as 
possible when you have settled on a good one. Ship 
fruit when he wants it. Send the varieties and grades 
that he wants, and in every other feasible way con- 
form to the requirements of his business. His busi- 
ness is the fruit grower's business. He is the fruit 
grower's agent. He should be treated as such. 

IV. THE FOREIGN MARKET 

Before leaving the general subject of the wholesale 
market, it may be best to give some attention to the 
European outlet for fruit. There are considerable 
quantities of apples shipped from the United States to 
Europe every year, the larger majority going to Eng- 
land. A few shippers have their regular European 
customers, who require a certain quantity of American 
apples each year. The Albemarle Pippins of Virginia 
and the Newtown Pippins of New York are particular 
favorites in England with special buyers. There are 
hardly any of our hardy fruits except the apple, how- 
ever, ever shipped out of the United States. Mr. 
Peter Barr, I remember, was very sure, when he was 
visiting here, that a good trade in American grapes 
could be built up in London by proper management. 



THK FRUIT MARKET 



13 



His belief is based on the best of reasons, but as yet 
there is no export business to speak of in this line. 

Shipments of fruit from Canada to England and 
Scotland are more regular, and, at least comparatively, 

TblOMSMie AeeiiM: "HOMCWAItfi* 

CORN EXCHANGE BUILDINGS. 27 FENNEL STREEt. . 

ACCOUNT SALES of.JMj£:uy4^J^^2A/>: , ^ 

t-MlOfl'lC'rU^^^^ . ^ @ ..^.M^n/ry^AX ^ SoW for (u<iou,rA «/ 



JHH^ 



i 

id 
fa 






« 






/O / 

C / 

^ 3 
/ // 

i /tr 

/% t 

c 

y 

y /o 

/ 2 



tw 



/i 



CHARGES y 
Freight 
Duty Paid 

Manchester Ship Canal Tolls and Quay CKarge't 
Cartage and Porterage at Docks ,and Warehousing 
Sampling and Taring 
Clearing and Forwarding 
Warehouse Hent 
Fire Imurance 

Interest on Freight jy ^^ 

Brokerage f!s> kj /i ' ^ 9 ffo 

fottages, do. 



4f^4. 



(^12 



3 // 






FIG. 2— ACCOUNT SALES OF CANADIAN APPLES SOLD IN 
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND 



14 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

are much greater. The Canadian home market, though 
unapproachably good in certain locahties, is not, on 
the whole, at all equal to the large city markets of the 
States, either in capacity or liberality. This is one 
reason why exportation is commoner. Another reason 
lies in the closer political and trade connections between 
Canada and England; while a final and ver>^ important 
reason is that the Canadian government has system- 
atically assisted in these exportations. Naturally the 
chief exports from Canada are apples. Nova Scotia, 
in particular, has a high reputation for its export apple 
trade. Other fruits, however, have been shipped to 
some extent, and in an experimental w^a}^ a great many 
different things have been sent over, such as peaches, 
grapes, and tomatoes. While each one of these has 
been successfully .shipped and .sold in particular in- 
stances, no regular business has been established with 
any fruit except the apple. Possibly the pear comes 
nearest to being an exception, but the Canadian ex- 
portation of pears is still a small matter. Perhaps 
when the Canadian Kieffer orchards get to bearing, this 
will be changed. 

In years of excessive crops, however, when the 
markets of the United States are over-supplied, the 
European outlet becomes a very important factor in 
the situation. This was most conspicuously the case 
in 1896, when the bumper apple crop of America was 
harvested. It seems perfectly certain, so far as we 
can know anything for the future, that there will never 
again be such a congestion and such a stressful com- 
petition in the fruit market. Certainly something was 
learned in 1896 concerning the European market, and 



THE FRUIT MARKET 1 5 

whenever another large crop comes exportations will 
be more carefully and intelligently handled. 

As a primary consideration it is plain that Ameri- 
can shippers could take much better advantage of the 
European market if they could supply it more regu- 



A li V 

Fruit < 

(.Jrimsl 


CANADIAN APPLES 

■tliltX- 49 (;u-f;,il,-s 
Jn.wrrs 51 

V, Oi,t 52 .. 
53 
54 

■"55 T. ('. Khm.. 


ex Manchester Trader.' 

"■ ' " * " (V) 1H 

..1 (1 llaDip) .34 

17 1 i .i.'irn[,) 17 


14 8 

W.'i 

1 u, ;i 

19 - 


20 
Slack ,u,.l W:-' 1^ 

Verx' ^Ih.-I- 1 

■' ) 'l 


56 


■J -; i 


16/ 'J 


57 

58 <•. I'i,.|in 


Slark au.l W.t i 


12, o 
^1(5 3 


59 


1 4 


12,3 




60 


( )n Shev,- ^ 4 


14/G 





61 Wealthy 1 J 
> St. Lawreuee 2 
FaliK use . 2 1 

• Fall ri|)|.iu , , o 1-: 


- m 



FIG. 3 — REPORT OF SALES OF CANADIAN FRUITS AT MANCHES- 
TER, ENGLAND, SHOWING "slacks" AND "WETS" 

larly. Shipping a great quantity of fruit one year 
and leaving the market vacant the next year does not 
foster, but rather prevents, the establishment of a 
profitable business. Considerable markets for our 
apples were opened in continental Europe in 1896, and 
a horticultural friend of mine who traveled there in 
1897 told me that there was a frequent call for Ameri- 



1 6 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

can apples and a general disappointment that none 
were offered. The crop of 1897 was short, however, 
and prices were so good in New York, Boston, Phila- 
delphia, and Baltimore that nobody cared to take the 
risk of shipping to Germany. This is likely to be the 
situation at least for many years to come. 

When shipments are made to the European market 
certain precautions are to be observed. First, only 
firm, solid fruit of fine appearance should be shipped. 
As in the general domestic market, high quality is not 
so important as attractive appearance. But the fruit 
must be the very best in shipping quality, and such as 
will sell for the highest price. This is imperative. 
Freights and other charges are so high that they con- 
sume the entire receipts from poor or mediocre fruit. 
It costs just as much to ship and sell a barrel of poor 
apples as a barrel of good ones, and it is only on the 
good barrel that there is enough left over to bring any- 
thing back to the shipper. 

In the second place, considerably greater pains than 
usual must be taken in packing. The ocean voyage, 
often on a lurching, pitching ship, and the rough 
handling on the docks, severely test the best packing. 
If there is the least slack space the fruit immediately 
begins to be bruised, and, in many cases, arrives in 
the market a shapeless mess of mush. The circum- 
stances would indicate the propriety of shipping fruit 
wrapped and packed in small packages. Unfortunately 
for the theory of it, this treatment has not been gener- 
ally profitable with apples. Perhaps it will do better 
in the future. 

In the third place, European shipments should be 



THK FRUIT MARKET 1 7 

confined, as far as possible, to a few well-known and 
standard varieties. Ben Davis apples generally do 
well. KiefFer pears have not been well received; but 
there are too many good pears grown in Europe. Per- 
haps Kieffers will do better after the marketmen get 
accustomed to them. 

V. SKlvLING ASSOCIATIONS — POOI.S 

The inherent weaknesses of the relation between 
fruit grower and commission man, and the very un- 
satisfactory result of that relation in special cases, have 
often led to earnest, almost desperate, effort to escape 
from the situation. There appear to be two favorite 
avenues of retreat. The first leads toward the special 
or private fruit market, and the man who follows it 
attempts to transfer his business to the basis of the 
personal or direct market. The situation as respects 
this personal market is fully discussed further on in 
this chapter. The second way of escape from the 
commission dealer leads in the direction of cooperative 
selling, selling associations, pools, and the like. In 
the latter case the business remains on the wholesale 
basis — the fruit growers still attack the general 
market. 

Numerous associations of this character, some com- 
prising only two or three neighbors, some involving 
large capital and considerable organization, have been 
formed in this country. On the whole, their experi- 
ence has not been encouraging. Such organizations, 
however, are most admirable in theory (if one leaves 
out of consideration certain fundamental principles and 
looks only at external circumstances). The theoreti- 



1 8 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

cal reasons (all of them sound) usually urged in favor 
of cooperative marketing are about as follows: 

1. Distribution. — An association of fruit growers 
can secure a better distribution of the crop. Instead 
of rushing all the fruits into one convenient market, as 
independent growers are apt to do, thereby causing a 
glut while leaving other markets vacant, the associa- 
tion can distribute the crop to suit the demand at all 
the various points within reach. In the case of per- 
ishable fruits, where rapid handling and quick sales 
are imperative, an association can maintain telegraphic 
communication wih all the markets, and is thus en- 
abled to ship to-day to one point and to-morrow to 
another, according to the fluctuating general supply 
at each point. 

2. Salesme7t. — An association can employ salesmen. 
These may be either traveling ' ' drummers, ' ' who 
visit dealers hither and yonder, seeking an outlet for 
the fruit handled by the association, or they may be 
resident salesmen, who handle goods just as the com- 
mission houses do, but who work on a salary instead 
of at a commission. 

3. Economy. — An association can operate more 
economically. Storage can be secured when needed. 
Men can be hired to better advantage. Fruit pack- 
ages can be bought in large quantities at lower rates. 
Sometimes fertilizers are bought through the associa- 
tion, and other economies effected. 

4. Transportatioyi. — An association can secure 
better transportation rates. On account of the larger 



THE) FRUIT MARKET 1 9 

volume of business, transportation companies will com- 
pete for the traffic ; and even when competition 
amounts to little, material shipping concessions can 
sometimes be secured by an association having a con- 
siderable quantity of fruit to handle. 

5. Grading.-— An association can establish a uni- 
form grade. If this could actually be done in prac- 
tice it would be a matter of first consequence. Else- 
where the importance of uniform grading for the 
general market is elucidated more in detail. The fact 
is, however, that tremendous difficulties arise when 
an association endeavors to establish a standard grade; 
and tljese difficulties grow rapidly greater as the 
standard of grading is advanced. Nevertheless, what- 
ever approach the association is able to make toward 
uniform packing and grading is an advantage to the 
business. 

6. Co7iwiand of the market. — Certain large markets 
are at the command of an association handling quan- 
tities of fruit, though the same markets will not han- 
dle small and irregular shipments. 

7. Restrictio7i of output. — An association, in certain 
cases, can influence prices in its own favor by control- 
ling the output to some extent. 

Many of these advantages are so obvious, and 
apparently so easy to attain, that the fruit-selling 
association has been a rather common experiment. 
There are three fundamental difficulties, however, in 
the way of their success, and the drawbacks have 
usually proved more powerful than the advantages. 



20 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

The principal troubles which have to be met are 
these : 

I. Distrust. — All classes of farmers are constitu- 
tionally and proverbially distrustful of other people 
and of one another. In a fruit association there arise 
— such is the experience — the most inveterate jealous- 
ies. Each man thinks he is furnishing a better grade 
of fruit than his neighbor, though all share alike in 
the profits. Each one fears the other will reap some 
special advantage somehow. In particular, the ap- 
pointment of managers, superintendents, supervisors 
of grading, shipping agents, and all other officials of 
the company, offers a sufficient opportunity for the 
elaboration of all sorts of neighborhood quarrels. 
Each man thinks he ought to be manager, and when 
one man is finall}^ chosen he is usually suspected of all 
sorts of favoritism. In any case he is apt to be ham- 
pered in his business relations by committees, boards 
of directors, and various kinds of red tape and foolish- 
ness. Often he has to consult a committee before 
taking any important action. Think of J. H. Hale 
consulting a committee before selling a couple of car- 
loads of peaches, or of T. B. Wilson calling a directors' 
meeting to see if he should accept or refuse $3.45 a 
barrel for his apples ! Most men don't even consult 
their wives ! 

Another difficulty which arises from the same 
cause is that the subscribers to such an association 
never want to pay a manager manager's wages. Two 
or three dollars a day is considered good pay. Yet 
such a man is compelled at times to handle thousands 



THE FRUIT MARKET 21 

of dollars' worth of business. The position is such as, 
in ordinary business life, would often command a sal- 
ary of five thousand dollars a year or more. 

2. Irregtilarity hi grading. — Unless all the fruit can 
pass practically under the eye and through the hands 
of one man, it is impossible to prCvServe a uniform 
grade. If, as often happens, the sorting is done by a 
committee, selected more with a view to mollifying the 
feelings of sundry subscribers than to the expertness 
of the packers, then all sorts of grading result. Then 
the association sends out one grade of fruit to-day 
as XXX and another grade to-morrow under the 
same mark. This kind of business immediately de- 
stroys the confidence of the purchaser, while demand 
and price decrease. This difficulty of maintaining a 
uniform grade for a fruit association has proven, in 
practice, to be one of the most serious. 

3. bivei'sion of competition. — In the ordinary course 
of trade, including the sale of fruit, the best fruit 
brings the most money and pays the largest profit. 
A man has every incentive, therefore, to grow the best 
fruit he can and to pack it as well as he knows how. 
When interests are pooled in a selling association, the 
poor fruit brings just as much as the good. The man 
who can squeeze in the poorest fruit, grown and 
handled at the least cost, thus makes the largest profit. 
The competition is thus turned from the production of 
the best fruit to the production of the worst. Every 
man tries to see how poorly he can do. The eternal 
law of progress, that law which provides for the sur- 
vival of the fittest, is abrogated, and, temporarily, the 



22 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

preference goes to the uii fittest. This matter is of such 
fundamental importance that, of itself, it is capable of 
overcoming all the theoretical advantages of coopera- 
tive organization enumerated above. 

Cooperation has been successful in some cases; but 
the writer does not know of any conspicuous instance 
of such success, nor of any continuously successful 
organization on any scale. 

VI. THE HOME MARKET 

To reach the general fruit market one has to grow 
the varieties which the market demands. In supply- 
ing the home trade one ma)^ cultivate the market to 
take what he has to offer. This difference sometimes 
amounts to a great deal. One may be able in this way 
to lead his customers to buy those things which he can 
produce most easily and profitably. 

For the most part, the greatest success in the home 
market is reached when the fruit handled is of the 
highest possible quality. A few customers who will 
take an extra select grade at a fancy price are better 
than many customers who are satisfied with a second- 
rate fruit, but who will not pay more than the green- 
grocer's price. 

Fruit should be supplied regularly to personal 
customers in the home market. Buying fruit is merely 
a habit in many families, and the habit is most readily 
noticeable by its absence in the majority of households. 
If the fruit wagon stops ever}^ Tuesday and Saturday, 
or even once a week, the mere regularity of the visit 
presently begins to sell some goods. 

Fruit vShould also be supplied continuously through 



THE FRUIT MARKET 23 

as long a season as possible. In the home market one 
can not depend on disposing of a large quantity at 
once, and the bulk of business must accrue through 
the extension of the season. This requires that the 
man who supplies the home market must grow a con- 
siderable variety of fruits. He should be able to start 
the season with strawberries, to follow these with rasp- 
berries, these with dewberries or blackberries, or both, 
these with cherries, these with early plums and green 
gooseberries, later to bring green apples and the first 
peaches, and so on through the year. Frequently cer- 
tain vegetables can be handled to advantage with fruits, 
particularly such things as tomatoes, muskmelons, and 
the like. In general, however, the man who is most 
successful in fruit growing is not equally successful in 
vegetable growing. It is hardly good policy to try to 
handle a complete line of both fruits and vegetables. 
Onions and strawberries do not combine well. 

Besides seeking to handle the best grades of fruit, 
the man who supplies his own private customers should 
use all pains to have everything as neat and clean as 
forethought and sapolio can make them. The baskets 
an(^ packages should be fresh and spotless. The boy 
who comes to the door should wear a conspicuously 
white apron. The fruit should be delivered in a neat 
covered wagon, bearing just enough advertising and 
not too much. Everybody should know whose de- 
livery wagon it is and what it carries ; but no one 
should be able at a little distance to mistake the turn- 
out for a traveling medicine outfit or the advertising 
wagon of a coming circus. 

Announcement should always be made in advance 



24 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

of fruits that are coming into market. Let the de- 
liveryman say, "We shall have some Shaffer rasp- 
berries next week. They are not very pretty, but 
they make A No. i shortcake;" or, "Next week we 
can bring you some Duchess apples. They are first- 
class for sauce or jelly. ' ' I know one fruit grower who 
is very successful in a small local market, and who 
announces his wares in the local newspaper every week. 
His little advertisement says: 



JONES'S FRUIT FARM 
This week we have the last of the straw- 
berries — big, fine, juicy Gandys, at 25 cents 
a quart. They're the last you get this year, 
and about the best. We also have some fine 
lettuce. Next week we shall offer the first 
raspberries, which will cost 35 cents a quart 
and will be worth it. 



A good liberal price — not excessive — should be fixed 
each day for each grade of goods, and should not be 
cut under for any reason whatsoever. It is much 
better to carry the whole stock home and put it in the 
cannery or the dry-house than to allow the price to be 
higgled down. A man who expects to deal with the 
same customers month after month must be absolutely 
immovable at this point. 

The matter of collections belongs to general business 
and is not properly a part of the fruit trade. Still, it 
is the most important part of the marketman's business, 
and should be managed with the utmost care. It is 
always best to insist on prompt and regular payments. 



THE FRUIT MARKET 25 

It is better to sacrifice a liberal patron than to allow 
collections to get badly behind. The importance of 
this matter is proved by the experience of hundreds 
and hundreds of marketmen everywhere. 

VII. PRODUCTION AND PRICK 

Over-production is a word which has often been 
conjured with in the discussion of agricultural topics. 
It seems usually to have served for the confusion of 
the hearer and usually for the equal confusion of the 
speaker. Over-production is commonly used to mean 
two widely different things. In some cases it is in- 
tended to mean the production of more fruit or grain 
than can be consumed; in other cases it means merely 
the offer of more fruit or grain than the market will 
accept at the price asked. 

In the former sense there is no such thing as over- 
production of fruit, and probably not of any agricul- 
tural crop. It is said that there can be no over-pro- 
duction of wheat while thousands of people are hungry 
and starving. There are always plenty of people 
hungry for strawberries, even when the market is most 
hopelessly glutted. There is, absolutely speaking, no 
over-production ; there is simply an over-supply. 

The term over-supply ought to be substituted for 
over-production in almost all discussions, since over- 
supply is the thing usually discussed. The problem of 
over-production will never worry a fruit grower, but 
over-supply is one of his greatest dangers. 

Over-supply is merely one of the extremes in the 
ever-fluctuating ratio of supply and demand. It 
should be considered, therefore, as incidental to the 



26 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

fundamental problem. Its real significance will appear 
more clearly in the course of the following study of 
demand, supply, and price. 

Two entirely independent conditions influence the 
price of any commodity. The first is cost of produc- 
tion. In a general way, as every one knows, the price 
of an article must be determined by what it costs to 
make it. It costs more to produce a barrel of apples 
than to produce a quart of strawberries, and the 
apples necessarily sell for a correspondingly higher 
price. 

But, aside from the cost of production, the rela- 
tion of supply and demand determine the price. 
Prices increase with demand and diminish with supply. 
The mathematician would say that demand divided by 
supply gives price; or he would write it in the form of 

an equation, thus : 

P_ d 

s 

or he might say that price is the expression of the 
ratio between demand and supply. Whatever he 
might say it would be no clearer than the practical 
fact that when peaches are plenty the price goes down, 
and when they are scarce it goes up. 

Now as the supply increases and price decreases, a 
point is reached presently where the market price 
equals cost of production. The margin of profit has 
been wiped out, and that market may properly be 
said to be over-supplied with the commodity in ques- 
tion. Sometimes fruit continues to be offered at prices 
below the cost of production, but such offerings can 
not long be continued. The cost of production thus 



THE FRUIT MARKET 27 

forms the lower limit in the varying ratio of demand 
and supply. 

Since price is the quotient of demand and supply, 
it follows that anything which influences either has a 
direct effect upon price. A study of the causes affect- 
ing prices thus becomes a study of the conditions 
affecting both supply and demand. As the question 
of price is the one lying nearest the fruit grower's 
pocketbook, we may properly examine these conditions 
in detail, even at the risk of being tedious. 

The conditions affecting the market supply are 
production, transportation, information, perishability, 
storage. 

I. Production. — The larger the crop, other things 
being equal, the greater the market offerings. The 
market was glutted with apples in 1896 simply be- 
cause of large production. Peaches were scarce in 
the Boston wholesale markets in 1899 merely because 
very few peaches were raised that year. Production, 
in turn, depends on the weather — how much, every 
fruit grower knows — on frost and hail, or on timely 
rains. Production depends also on the ease with 
which a crop is grown. Anybody can grow apples — 
that is, some kind of apples ; and that is why the 
apple market is so apt to be over-supplied in a good 
year. Very few people can grow nectarines or apri- 
cots, and, in consequence, an over-supply of these fruits 
is less likely to occur. 

Production varies also with price. Higher prices 
stimulate production. I^ow prices diminish production. 
Thus our equation reacts upon itself. The mathe- 



28 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

matics of it are spoiled; but that ought not to draw a 
complaint from the mathematician, for the same cir- 
cumstances have often spoiled the calculations of the 
fruit grower. This stimulation which high prices give 
to production tends to set a maximum limit on price 
— that is, to the varying ratio of demand and supply. 

2. Tra7isportation . — Next to production, transpor- 
tation facilities chiefly determine the quantity of fruit 
offered in a given market. Increased transportation 
facilities, therefore, by bringing larger quantities of 
fruit to market, tend to depress prices. This rule is 
hardly open to exception; but it must be noted that 
though prices may be reduced, the grower's net profits 
may be increased. 

3. Informatio7i. — The rapid circulation of informa- 
tion concerning markets tends powerfully to regulate 
the distribution of a fruit crop. It sometimes happens 
that the Cincinnati market is glutted with grapes on 
the very day when the people of Pittsburg are almost 
bereft of that comforting fruit. But where shippers 
are properly informed, these mistakes of distribution 
do not occur. This is one of the best features of sell- 
ing associations or pools. See page 18. 

4. Perishability . — The more perishable fruits show 
extreme fluctuations in supply. When strawberries 
are ripe they have to be sold; and as they ripen rapidly 
during hot weather and at the hight of the season, 
the supply increases enormously at such times. 

5. Storage. — Facilities for fruit storage equalize the 
supply, making it less at the hight of the season and 
greater in succeeding weeks. 



THE FRUIT MARKET 29 

The conditions affecting the demand for any given 
class of fruits are price, quality, acquaintance, season, 
supply of other fruits. 

1. Price. — It has already been seen that price influ- 
ences production, and so reacts on itself. But it influ- 
ences demand still more, thus reacting doubly upon 
itself. Nothing else will move a quantity of fruit so 
quickly as an attractive reduction in price. 

2. Quality. — Good fruit sells much more rapidly 
than poor fruit. The buyer who gets a good package 
of fruit will likely want another. Poor fruit is apt to 
lag in the market at any price. 

3. Acquahitance . — Buyers call for those fruits with 
which they are acquainted. There is a steady demand 
for Baldwin apples and practically none for Sutton, 
though Sutton is a much fairer and better apple of the 
same season. The reason is that Baldwin is known to 
everybody, while Sutton is a stranger. A friend of 
mine had to give away his De Soto plums the first year 
because nobody knew what they were ; but the suc- 
ceeding year his customers asked for them and pre- 
ferred them to Lombards. There is only a small mar- 
ket for American apples in continental Europe, for the 
single reason that American apples are hardly known 
there. When the excessive crop of 1896 forced Ameri- 
can apples into German markets they found friends, 
and in 1897 German buyers were anxiously inquiring 
for the fruit they could not get. The Canadian gov- 
ernment, in seeking to stimulate the demand for 
Canadian apples in England, does so chiefly by making 
the fruit better known to English consumers. 



30 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

4. Season. — There is an urgent demand for limited 
quantities of certain fruits out of their normal season. 
Hothouse strawberries and tomatoes usually bring dis- 
proportionately high prices. For the most part, how- 
ever, the greatest vohcme of demand coincides with the 
market season of each fruit. Fameuse apples are 
wanted in November and December, and Northern Spy 
in February and March. Strawberries are wanted in 
strawberry season, while a month later most people 
prefer raspberries. The demand for certain fruits at 
certain seasons, however, is sometimes due to more 
recondite causes. Thus there is, in the eastern states, 
a demand for early plums and for late plums, while 
mid-season varieties are apt to go begging. This is 
because the few early plums are wanted for eating 
fresh, while the late ones are used for canning. Dur- 
ing August the housewives are either at the seashore 
or on the back porch trying to keep cool. Nobody 
wants to stand over a hot stove canning plums during 
dog days. But when vacation is over and the days 
are cooler the housewives' thoughts begin to turn to 
the winter supply of canned fruits, and then the late- 
ripening Green Gages, Italian prunes, and Damsons 
come into strong demand. 

5. Supply of other friiits. — When bananas are ex- 
cessively plenty and cheap, fruit eaters hesitate to pay 
large prices for apples. When peaches are low in price 
they are canned in preference to high-priced plums. 
The price of plums, in fact, is apt to be determined by 
the supply of peaches. Thus the supply of one fruit 
affects the demand for others throughout the list. 



THE FRUIT MARKET 3 1 

All these factors must be kept in view by the fruit 
grower who is studying the price of his goods. It will 
be seen, however, that certain of these conditions are 
more within the control of the individual fruit grower 
than others. So far as his own goods are concerned, 
the price at which they will sell depends chiefly on 
quality, season, perishability, and storage. These fac- 
tors he can determine for himself — at least to a large 
extent — and to them he will naturally give his prin- 
cipal attention. 

VIII. UTII.IZATION OF WASTES 

Fruit growing is essentially a manufacturing busi- 
ness. The points in which the production of a fine 
grade of strawberries agree with the production of 
men's ready-made shirts are many, and an extensive 
comparison of the two lines of business might be made 
with .profit, except that it would be too much of a 
digression to fit with the simple plan of this essay. 

In most lines of manufacturing the saving of the 
wastes and the utilization of by-products are highly 
important parts of the business. Some manufacturers 
actually lose money on the main output, while paying 
good dividends out of the by-products. The packing- 
house men say that they can lose money on every beef 
animal killed, and yet make money enough out of 
cowhides and the fertilizer tank to save themselves 
handsomely. A friend of mine who used to help Mr. 
Armour handle pork told me that they saved every 
jot and scrap of the hog except his dying squeal, and 
that they hoped presently to contract that to the gov- 
ernment for use in fog-horns. 



32 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

Now nothing is more obvious than that the fruit 
grower meets with serious wastes. Sometimes a third 
part of his peaches are unsuitable for the market, and 
apple growers occasionally throw out more apples than 
they put into the barrels. Any profit which might be 
wrung from these wastes would be especially accept- 
able. 

Unfortunately it must be said that the utilization 
of fruit wastes has never proved conspicuously suc- 
cessful; and, furthermore, that, in the majority of 
instances where something has been done, the profit 
has not accrued chiefly to the man who grew the fruit. 
The causes which have contributed to this result will 
become more obvious, perhaps, in the course of the 
following discussion. 

The principal ways of using waste or cull fruits are 
drying, canning, preserving, jelly making, manufacture 
of cider, vinegar, spirits, etc. A few words on each of 
these may suffice. 

I . Drying ajid evaporating. — One of the best uses to 
which cull fruit can be put is to dry it or evaporate it. 
Formerly the home manufacture of dried apples, dried 
peaches, dried pumpkins, etc., was common in all the 
farming districts of the United States — at least, in the 
north — and home-dried fruit was to some extent an 
article of barter in the country stores. That day has 
passed. Home-dried apples and peaches went out with 
home-knit socks and home-made soap. There are still 
families who dry their own apples, just as there are 
some who still make soap and knit socks; but for the 
most part these have all been given up. The change 



THE FRUIT MARKET 



33 



has been the same in all cases, and has resulted from 
the same causes. It is cheaper to buy soap than 
to make it, easier to get ready-made socks than to 
knit them, and equally easier to buy dried fruit than 
to dry it one's self. It is a question of division of 
labor. The man or the stock company that makes a 




FIG. 4 — SIMPLEST FORM OF EVAPORATOR. MADE TO SIT 
UPON THE KITCHEN STOVE 

business of drying fruit on a large scale can do the 
work to much greater advantage than the farmer or 
the farmer's wife. His product is more uniform, better 
in appearance, and perhaps also better in quality than 
the home-made article, while at the same time it can 
be sold at a much lower price. 

Fruit drydng and evaporating, therefore, has been 
almost wholly taken out of the fruit growers' hands, 
and has fallen under the management of specialists. 
Under ordinary circumstances the fruit grower has 
nothing to do with it except to deliver his peaches or 



34 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

his blackberries at the dry-house. As this book is 
written for the fruit grower we need not examine 
closely into the business of the fruit buyer, the cold 
storage mana-ger, the transportation company, the 
evaporating house, or the outside speculator. We are 
concerned only in the home drying of fruit, and such 
drying is nearly obsolete. We may be sorry that it is 
so; but that does not change the fact, and it need not 
lead us aside from the present discussion. 

All sorts of fruit can be dried or evaporated ; so 
can many vegetables. Apples, peaches, apricots, 
plums, blackberries, and raspberries, among the fruits, 
are especially good when well evaporated ; and corn 
and pumpkins are most prized of the vegetables. 

Different varieties behave differently in drying, de- 
pending largely on texture and water content. These 
differences are particularly noticeable among apples. 
The general nature and range of these variations may 
be seen from the following table, giving the amount 
of dried fruit secured from the bushel of green fruit, 
and the approximate time required for drying : 

Pounds to Hours required 
the bushel to evaporate 

Roxbury Russet 9 \}4. to 2 

Swaar 5/^ I'X to 2I4 

Gilliflower 4>2 iM to 2^^ 

Twenty-ounce 5 2 to 2%, 

Holland Pippin 5 ^ \.o 1% 

Seek-no-further 4^ 2 to 2^^ 

Spitzenberg t>% 2 \.o 2% 

Greening 6 2 to 2% 

Fall Pippin 6 2 to 23^ 

Belleflower SK 2^ to 2^ 

Baldwin 63^ 2^4 to 2^ 

King 53^ l%\.o'i% 



THE FRUIT MARKET 



35 




FIG. 5 — A MORE ELABORATE COOK STOVE EVAPORATOR 



From the above table it will be seen that it is better, 
when apples are to be dried, to assort them, drying 
the kinds that are most alike together. 

Very simple evaporators can be bought for home 
use. The two shown in Figs. 4 and 5 are of this 



36 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

nature. Both are made to sit directly upon an ordinary 
cook stove or kitchen range, and to take their heat 
from that source. Such machines will dry from one 
to two bushels of green fruit a day. The capacities 
of the larger as well as of the smaller evaporators may 
be judged from the following figures, taken from the 
circular of the Vermont Farm Machine Co. : 

Size Capacity, 

Trays ^ ,' Bushels per day 

of green fruit 

No. o* 5 20 X 20 I to 2 

No. 00* 6 20 X 24 2 to 3 

No. I 7 22 X 28 3 to 4 

No. 2 10 22x31 6 to 8 

No. 3 13 22 x 34 12 to 16 

No. 33^ 13 30x34 16 to 22 

No. 4 15 30x48 30 to 40 

No. 5 18 30x54 50 to 60 

The prices of these machines range from $15 for 
No. o to $175 for the No. 5. These may be taken as 
representative of the prices charged by other manu- 
facturers for similar apparatus. 

The more elaborate machines are built on the same 
general principles as the smaller ones, except that they 
are provided with their own furnaces. Figure 6 
shows a typical machine of the larger sort. This 
particular machine is rated to evaporate eighteen to 
twenty-five bushels of apples in twenty- four hours. 

The general manipulation of the small evaporators 
is fairly simple, and they are not subject to accidents 
or serious difficulties. The following directions given 
by the manufacturers for the management of one of 
the smaller machines will apply to nearly all others, 

* No furnace ; used on kitchen stove. 



THE FRUIT MARKET 37 

and serve to show the general requirements of home 
evaporation : 

"A moderately hot stove or range is all that is re- 
quired as to heat. Keep all the plates or covers on the 
stove, and set the drier on the top. Each tray holds 
one and a half to two quarts of berries, cherries, etc., 




FIG. 6 — A FULL-FLEDGED EVAPORATOR, HAVING ITS OWN 
FURNACE 

without obstructing the hot air currents. Do not put 
more in a tray. Enter all trays with fresh fruit next 
to the stove, and change from lower to upper tracks, 
as other trays are entered, or as the drying progresses. 
When nearly done, the contents of a couple of trays 
may be put upon one, and fresh fruit entered and the 
operation continued indefinitely. Avoid putting the 
fruit on the trays so thick, either fresh or in doubling 



38 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

that partially dried, so as to obstruct the free circula- 
tion of the hot air currents through the machine, as 
this checks rapid work. Avoid scorching by moder- 
ate firing and close attention to frequent changing of 
the trays. If sulphur is to be used to prevent oxida- 
tion and secure a bright, handsome color for apples, 
pears, and peaches, simply drop a piece of brimstone 
about size of a medium bean on the stove, close to or 
under the drier, and it will ignite and the fumes will 
be drawn upward through the machine and do the 
work. If you are operating in a close room or kitchen, 
and the smell is objectionable, you can fill the trays and 
put them in a box or barrel, with a cover on, and burn 
a little sulphur under them out in the open air, and 
then enter the trays in the machine. Procure a piece 
of mosquito-netting to throw over the machine when 
set aside, to guard against flies and other insects. This 
will not be in the way when on the stove. Do not 
cover top of machine with paper or a close cloth when 
in use, as it would stop the hot air currents going 
through it and prevent its working well, or at all. " 

The use of sulphur, as suggested above for the 
bleaching of the fruit, is frequently practiced. If 
carefully done, it gives excellent results. The fruit is 
made more attractive in appearance, it keeps better, 
and the flavor is unaffected. Excessive sulphuring, 
however, gives a less desirable color, and destroys the 
flavor of the fruit. In extreme cases the fruit is ren- 
dered totally uneatable, and even poisonous. 

2. Caiming. — The canning industry has enjoyed an 
unparalleled development in the United States during 



THE FRUIT MARKET 39 

the last twenty-five 3'ears, and more particularly 
during the last decade. This will appear from 
certain figures given in the Appendix. The can- 
ning industry, proper, does not belong to the fruit 
grower, however. In certain cases the fruit grower 
plants, tends, and harvests fruit especially for the 
canning factory. In such cases the cannery is to be 
looked on as the fruit market, and is to be treated just 
the same as any other fruit market under similar con- 
ditions. In a good many instances, however, the can- 
neries are located near large fruit markets (particu- 
larly about Baltimore), and depend to a considerable 
extent for their supply of fruit on the waste from the 
general market. They take the second-class and 
damaged consignments off the hands of the commission 
men. Thus an outlet is made for much waste fruit; 
but this outlet is not in the fruit grower's control. 

Home canning, although highly to be recom- 
mended, seldom reaches such proportions as to affect 
the fruit market, even of the individual who does the 
canning. In home canning, moreover, the best fruit 
is apt to be selected, so that it is no longer a problem 
of utilizing wastes. The work, therefore, has Httle 
connection, direct or indirect, with the business of fruit 
marketing. 

3. Other methods. — Waste apples are sometimes fed 
to stock, especially to cows, sheep, and hogs. It is 
still a question what their feeding value is, though it 
is certainly not ver>^ great. It is better to feed waste 
fruit to stock than to make no use of it at all. Other 
fruits besides apples are sometimes fed to stock, par- 



40 FRUIT HARVKSTING, STORING, MARKETING 

ticularly to pigs. It is said that pigs will eat anything 
but tomatoes and tobacco. Cider making, in some cir- 
cumstances, offers a more or less profitable outlet for 
waste apples; and peaches occasionally develop into 
peach brandy. Perhaps the best brandy made in this 
country is distilled from apricots; but taken altogether, 
the production of brandy or other spirits from fruit in 
America — wine making excepted — is not important 
enough to affect the general fruit business. 

Wine making is a subject by itself, and can not be 
treated here. Cider manufacture, likewise, should be 
treated with wine making rather than with fruit 
marketing. 



PART TWO 

Picking 



PICKING 



The marketing of fruit really begins with the pick- 
ing. In fact, a great many buyers go to the fields, 
bargain for the fruit on the trees, and attend to the 
picking, grading, and packing themselves. Even 
when the grower holds his own fruit for a consider- 
able time between picking and selling, his method of 
handling it in the market must all be foreseen at 
picking time, and the picking must be managed in a 
way to fit in with the general plan of marketing. 

I. TIME TO PICK 

The perishable fruits are picked for market some 
time before they are really ripe. The exact time can 
be determined only by experience. It will depend on 
the distance the fruit has to be shipped, on the ship- 
ping quality of the variety, and on other considera- 
tions. Strawberries are picked as soon as they color. 
Red raspberries are left till they begin to soften 
slightl3^ Black raspberries are picked as soon as they 
will part from the receptacle on which they grow. 
Blackberries and dewberries are usually picked as soon 
as they are evenly colored. Gooseberries are often, in 
fact usually, picked while yet quite green. Currants 
are allowed to color, but must be picked before they 
are ripe, especially if they are to be of any use in jelly 
making — the end to which they are oftenest destined. 

43 



44 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

Grapes are picked when they are ready, and it takes a 
man of experience to tell when that is. In the north- 
ern states, however, they may be allowed to hang late 
on the vines. In some vineyards the later varieties 
are habitually left out several days after the frost has 
removed most of the leaves from the vines. Thus 
they get the late autumn sun, and ripen up with a 
sweetness and a perfection otherwise unattainable in 
the short northern season. 

Peaches and apricots are picked as soon as they 
show the first traces of ripening. The well-trained 
picker tests each fruit by taking it between his thumb 
and fingers, and feeling of it with the ball of his 
thumb. The fi-uit is not squeezed nor bruised; but if 
it has the faintest feeling of mellowness its time has 
come, and the picker transfers it to his basket. 

Cherries are picked just before they ripen, and the 
best test for ripeness is to eat a few. After one gets 
the standard fixed in his mind by this simple and 
effective test he can tell by the color of the fruit 
whether it is at the desired stage or not. 

Plums will bear picking when decidedly green — at 
least, many plums will, the Japanese varieties in par- 
ticular. If they are destined for a- near-by market they 
can be allowed to get fairly ripe, and in nearly all cases 
they should be allowed to hang as long as possible, 
except when they are wanted for jelly making. Most 
of the Japanese plums and some others ripen very 
nicely after picking, and they may be kept for three 
or four weeks even in a moderately cool, dark place, and 
come out ripe, juicy, and fit. In extreme cases they 
can be kept considerably longer. Some of the native 



PICKING 45 

plums, like Wildgoose and Pottawattamie, are apt to 
break their skins when overripe, and additional pre- 
cautions have to be observed to pick such varieties 
sufficiently green. 

Pears are usually taken from the tree before they 
are ripe, and are stored in a moderately cool, dark 
place to ripen. They should not be piled up too 
deeply. For marketing it is probably best to pack 
them temporarily in boxes and baskets convenient for 
handling. In case they are to go to market soon they 
may even be packed directly into the permanent boxes 
or baskets, and these packages may be placed in the 
storage room. Aside from the Kieffers and the Cali- 
fornia fruit, the pear business is so small in this country 
that no satisfactory system of handling it has been 
worked out. 

Apples are practically never allowed to ripen fully 
on the trees. Many early apples, especially from 
southern orchards, are sent to market before they are 
full grown and while the seeds are quite white. Sum- 
mer and early fall apples are always sold considerably 
on the green side. I^ate keeping varieties do not really 
ripen, of course, till January or March, as the case 
may be, but they are ready to pick just about the 
time the frost begins to thin the foliage visibly on the 
trees. Certain varieties, Spy in particular, are left 
hanging late, even after the leaves have mostly fallen 
and until night frosts are decidedly sharp. Fameuse 
and apples of that type require to be picked relatively 
early. When they begin to fall from the trees picking 
time has come. The poorer specimens naturally fall 
earliest from trees of all varieties, and by watching 



46 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

the windfalls the orchardist can tell better than in any 
other way when the picking is beginning to be pressing. 

II. PICKING RKCEPTACLKS 

Strawberries are usually picked into the quart 
boxes in which they are shipped. In case they are to 
be sorted the quart cups may still be used for picking. 
Six or eight of these are held in a carrier, and a 
carrier is given to each picker. Raspberries, black- 
berries, gooseberries, currants, etc., are commonly 
handled in much the same way. However, all such 
berries as are solid enough to bear handling and some 
pouring may be picked into any convenient basket, 
and are then transferred to the shipping packages at 
the sorting table or in the packing shed. Cherries, 
peaches, and plums are either picked directly into the 
shipping packages, or are put into convenient baskets 
and brought to the sorting table. Whether a man 
adopts the one plan or the other depends largely on 
the help he has in picking. If the fruit runs fairly 
even and the pickers are competent to do the grading, 
the two operations can usually be advantageously com- 
bined. In case the pickers can not be trusted to grade 
and pack the fruit, it is evident that the pickers' 
packages must be delivered at a sorting table, where 
the fruit is graded and repacked. 

Apples are always picked clean off the tree as the 
work goes on, except in case of summer apples, which 
should be harv^ested in successive pickings. Some 
pickers prefer to pick into a half -bushel basket, which 
should be lined with burlap or sacking to prevent 
bruising the fruit. Other pickers prefer to use a sack 



PICKING 47 

which is slung over the shoulders. When baskets are 
used the bails are provided with stout bent iron hooks, 
something like a letter S, except that the lower curl is 
closed about the basket handle to keep it from coming 
off. The upper crook is made large enough to go over 
an ordinary branch, and this allows the picker to hang 
his basket securely within his reach, while he works 
among the branches with both hands. Ropes or straps 
are usually provided for letting the baskets down from 
the trees and pulling them up again. 

Some apple growers pour the fruit from the picking 
baskets directly upon the sorting table, packing the 
apples immediately. Others put the fruit in piles or 
windrows on the ground to be handled later. Still 
others empty the fruit temporarily into barrels, which 
are hauled to the packing shed, where the grading and 
packing are done at convenience. Each man should 
adopt that method which best suits his circumstances. 
Aside from personal preference and local convenience, 
one way is just as good as the other. 

III. STKMS ON OR OFF 

Some fruits are to be picked with stems attached, 
others are taken without the stems. The reasons 
which make the one method or the other desirable in 
each case vary considerably. Cherries and plums are 
picked with the stems for two reasons: first, the re- 
moval of the stem allows the juice to escape, moisten- 
ing the package, and allowing decay to begin; and, 
second, the stems help to pack the fruit safely into the 
basket or cup. The stems act like so much excelsior 
or other packing material, preventing the soft fruits 



48 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

from squeezing one against the other. Apples are 
picked with stems on largely for the sake of looks, but 
partly also because the removal of the stem may give 
a chance for decay to begin. 

The following schedule shows which fruits are 
usually picked with stems on and those which are 
usually removed from the .stem. There are some ex- 
ceptions to this classification, but they are local and 
unimportant: 

Picked with stems on Picked with stems off 
Strawberry Plum Raspberry 

Gooseberry Pear Peach 

Currant Apple Apricot 

Grape Quince Blueberry 

Cherry Persimmon Juneberry 

IV. CONVENIENCES AND INCONVENIENCES 

In all the European books on horticulture, and 
consequently in all the early American works, there 
are described various fruit pickers. These usually 
consist of long poles surmounted with some contriv- 
ance for pinching, twisting, or cutting off the fruit, 
and with a receptacle for catching it. Such things 
are merely curiosities on a practical modern fruit farm. 
There is no need to describe any of them here. 

Picking shears are used in gathering grapes. The 

form most popular 
in this country is 
here illustrated. 
These can be 
bought of any deal- 

FIG. 7— PICKING SHEARS FOR GRAPES ^^ ^^ hortlcultUral 
AND OTHER FRUITS SUppHcS, aud COSt 




PICKING 49 

about 75 cents to $i.oo at retail. Another pair of 
scissors, somewhat different, and also shown in the 
illustration, is used for trimming the bunches of 
grapes when they are packed into the baskets for 
market. 

Similar scissors can be advantageously employed in 
picking currants when they are to be nicely packed 
for a good market. 

Occasionally one will find illustrated and described 
some so-called fruit-picking machines. For the most 
part these are even less worthy of description than the 
pole-pickers just referred to. They are usually some 
kind of a mechanical compromise between shaking the 




SHEARS FOR TRIMMING FRUIT 



fruit off the tree and picking it by hand. The typical 
fruit-picking machine consists of a considerable spread 
of canvas stretched on a frame and mounted on a 
wheelbarrow. The canvas is arranged somewhat in 
the form of a broad-flaring funnel. The apples, or 
pears, or plums are shaken onto this canvas and roll 
toward the center, where there is sometimes a hole 
through which they pass into a basket. The use of 
such machines is to be strongly deprecated. The only 
way to pick fruit is by hand. Certain exceptions 
should be made to this rule for fruit picked for canning 
factories and drying houses. Mechanical pickers may 



50 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 




FIG. 9 — A HANDY HOME-MADE ORCHARD WAGON 



be used to advantage in this work, but for the most 
part they have not been found very desirable. 

It may be said in passing that it is still the practice 
in certain belated neighborhoods to gather fruit by 
shaking it off the trees and picking it up from the 
ground. There is no need of arguing against such a 
way of doing things. As vSoon as this fruit is taken to 
the open market the fruit buyer will furnish the most 
emphatic of arguments against it. Such fruit will not 
ship, will not keep, and will not sell. It is fit only for 
immediate home consumption or for sale in remote 
country markets where there is no business in fruits. 

In picking tree fruits ladders of some sort are 
usually desirable or necessary. For trees of moderate 
size, such as most plums and peaches, a tall, light 
step-ladder is usually best and most convenient. This 
should be made with three legs, and not with four, as 



PICKING 



51 



Step-ladders are usually made. A three-legged ladder 
will stand almost anywhere it is put, whereas a four- 
legged ladder will stand firmly, hardly anywhere in the 
field. For tall trees a light ladder made in the ordinary 
fashion is better than a step-ladder. This can be 
leaned against the branches on the outside of the 
tree. 

A low wagon with the trucks arranged to turn 
shortly is very desirable in handling all sorts of fruit 
in the field. It is valuable in the strawberry field and 
indispensable in the orchard. The low trucks ad- 
vertised in agricultural papers are specially suited 
to this sort of work. A good substitute made from 
the trucks of an abandoned horse power is shown in 
Fig. 9. Another way of making up a handy wagon 
for handling fruit is shown in Fig. 10. Any handy 
man about the farm can readily arrange something 
of this sort. I have seen an old-fashioned stone-boat 
used to great advantage in hauling in apple barrels 
from the orchard. 




FIG. 10— 'ORCHARD WAGON MADE ON ORDINARY WAGON 
TRUCKS 



52 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 
V. MANAGING PICKERS 

The management of pickers sometimes becomes a 
serious and complicated problem, particularly in han- 
dling such fruits as strawberries, cranberries, etc. In 
neighborhoods where fruit is grown extensively these 
methods have been pretty well worked out, and in 
many instances have become matters of custom. There 
are many schemes in use, but they may all be reduced 
to three general forms, somewhat as follows : 

I . The day-book system. — In following this 
method, the poorest one of all, the proprietor, over- 
seer, or foreman merely keeps a memorandum in his 
day-book, showing what each picker has done. Kach 
picker's name is written at the top of the page, and 
the successive days' pickings are entered below. A 
record then takes some such simple form as this : 

SARAH FORBES 

May 20 15 quarts 

21 

23 

24 

25 

26 ..... . 



Where less than a dozen pickers are employed, 
where the same pickers return day after day, and 
where payment is made as often as once a week, this 
system may be satisfactory. Pickers are always prone 
to be dissatisfied with the account kept by the fore- 
man, however, so that some system which throws the 
responsibility for errors more upon the picker himself, 



21 




35 




30 




40 




17 




158 


quarts 



PICKING 



53 



K E. L. DOTY, 

A X A 

^ ILION, N. Y. -%'jn 



FIG. II — PICKER S CHECK 



while at the same time protecting the employer, is 
generally preferable. 

2. T/ie check system. — Following this method the 
foreman issues a check to 
each picker for the number of 
quarts, baskets, or other 
packages picked. The check 
is exchanged for the baskets, 
as soon as they are picked, at 
the moment when the}^ are 
delivered to the foreman. 

This check is commonly printed essentially in the 
form shown in Fig. ii, which w^as engraved from 
a picker's check used on a New York strawberry 
farm. The figure shows the number of quarts picked, 
and the foreman has tickets bearing various numbers, 
such as are likely to be needed. On pay day these 
checks are delivered by the picker and redeemed by 
the employer. 

3. The punch-card system. — This is probably, all 
things considered, the best method in general use. 




2 I 2 I 2 



2 I 2 I 2 I 2 I 2 



1 I I I 1 I I [- 1 I ' I ' I ■ I H 1 I ■' I ' 



BERRY PICKER'S TALLY TICKET. 



Strawberry Hill, Mexico, N. K, 

/ will pay on demand in cash, at the rate of. 



.cents 



per quart, to for 

picking berries in nice order. 

QEOROE A. DAVIS. 

ROWS A8SI«HC0 



2|2|2|2|2|2|2 



2 I 2 



I 4 I 4 |4 I 4 I 4 I 4 I 4,t4 I 4 I 4 I \\± 



[2 — DAVls' PUNCH CARD 



54 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

Each picker is provided with a printed • punch card, 
which is usually either written with the picker's name 
or punched with his number. Along the mxargins of 
the card various numbers are printed, and these are 
punched with a conductor's punch by the foreman 
as the baskets are delivered. Each picker retains his 
own punch card all the while, and is solely responsible 



Strawberry Hill Frnit Farm Berry Ticket, 

I agree to pay at end of season to the picker 
whose number appears hereon, subject to, Rules 
oa Back, the amount punched out on^this card. 
No Transfer. 

GEO. A. DAVIS, Pro. 



FIG. 13 — ANOTHER FORM OF PUNCH CARD UbED BY 
MR. DAVIS 



for it. In some fields it is customary to issue a fresh 
card every morning. In other places the cards and 
the work are of such a nature that the same card will 
record the pickings for several days or for a whole 
week. 

Without presuming to offer any new scheme, we 
may point out that none of these systems is perfect. 
If some device could be arranged whereby the foreman 
and the picker could quickly secure duplicate records 
of each parcel of fruit delivered it would come nearer 
the ideal system . Something like a railway train con- 
ductor' s cash-fare ticket might answer. This would 



PICKING 



55 



require to be furnished with three sets of numbers: 
one to give the picker's number, one for the date, and 
one for the number of quarts or baskets deHvered. 
This would be somewhat comphcated, since it w^ould 
require three punchings and the removal of the picker's 
duplicate slip for each delivery of packages. Still this 
system might be adapted to suit certain circumstances 
very nicely. 

It ought to be remarked that frequent pay days 





f 






ill 


f 


> 










V 


*. 1 *. 


>. 


Kk 


*■ 1 *», 


tf». 1 *. 1 *. 


1^ . 
















^ 








? \ ? 


7 


Vi 


f 1 f 


f f f 


? 


o.j 

HI 1 


^^'^^^ 


SIMPSON'S IMPROVED TALLY SYSTEM 


a 




For Tallying Berries, Hops, Milk, Etc 




> • 


/w\ 




GEO. W. SIMPSON, 1 78 E. FIR H ST., OSWEGO, N. Y. 


» 


» • 


i O j 




.^!^S^s^^^^:^^X^^JX^tx:^^^ 




m i 


\zy 






CO 


i 

.1 




a 


1 1 ; 




S 


i 




S 


£1 


r* 


•sis 


s 


K 
S 


•s -^ 


s 


r- 


►* 

5 


-■a 


y^ 



FIG. 14 — SIMPSON'S PUNCH CARD 



are very desirable, no matter what system of accounting 
is followed. The opportunities for losing tickets or 
for making various mistakes are so numerous that 
every occasion should be taken for preventing such 
difficulties. With pay day coming as often as once a 
week mistakes can be more easily discovered and recti- 
fied. If payment can be made at the end of every 
day it is still better. The memory of the foreman and 
of the picker, taken jointly, is worth something then. 
Apple pickers usually work by the day, and peach 
and plum pickers often do. In such circumstances 



56 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

the foreman merely keeps account of the time. Apples 
are sometimes picked by the barrel, however, and in 
that case it is best simply to furnish each picker with 
a piece of chalk, directing him to mark his number 
on each barrel picked. When the barrels are hauled 
into the packing or storage shed the foreman's account 
can then be made up from the numbers. When apples 
or pears are picked by the bushel, by the basket, or in 
any similar way, the record may best be kept by one 
of the systems described above. 

In the management of pickers it will be found of 
the utmost importance to assign each one to a given 
row or tree, and require him to pick it clean. All sorts 
of serious difficulties arise if the least neglect of this 
precaution is allowed. 



PART THREE 

Grading and Packing 



57 



GRADING AND PACKING 



It would be hard to over-emphasize the importance 
of grading fruit for market. Grading is something 
which can not be overdone. The more rigid the gra- 
ding the better it pays. Careless and un thoughtful 
fruit men often think that they can not afford to take 
great pains in sorting, except they secure thereby an 
extra select grade of fruit for which they can com- 
mand a fancy price. Because apples were abundant 
and low in price in 1896 many growers thought they 
could not afford to sort them carefully ; but in every 
case events proved that the man who most rigidly 
graded his apples was the only one who made any- 
thing from his sales. 

I have heard Mr. J. H. Hale give his experience in 
handling muskmelons. He had some growing in his 
Georgia peach orchards when they were a drug in the 
northern markets ; yet by throwing away three-quar- 
ters of the entire crop he was able to realize a hand- 
some profit out of the other one-fourth, consisting only 
of fancy melons. A shrewd student of mine who 
earned his way through college made a part of his 
money by strawberry growing. He sold his berries at 
home in a little country village. When strawberries 
were selling at twelve and a half cents a quart he 

59 



6o FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

sorted his product into two grades, and sold the first 
grade — something over half the crop — at twenty cents 
a quart, and the second grade at ten cents. This left 
him a handsome margin for his sorting. 

I. THE PRACTICE OF GRADING 

Most fruit is practically unsaleable without sorting, 
and the better it is sorted the better it sells. 

Frequently the sorting of fruit consists merely in 
removing unmarketable specimens. It is seldom prac- 
ticable to divide a picking of strawberries, berry by 
berry, into two grades, as my student friend did it, 
and I never knew of blackberries or gooseberries 
being picked over by hand in that way. Bad speci- 
mens should always be removed, however, and the 
best way to do this is not to pick them. 

Grapes are generally sorted (at least, for the better 
class of trade), the work being done in the packing 
shed when the fruit is put into the baskets. A pair 
of slim scissors, made for the purpose, is used, and all 
bad or broken berries are trimmed out. 

Most fruits which are handled on a large scale, 
such as apples, pears, peaches, oranges, etc. , are sub- 
jected to a more complicated process of grading. Two 
or three, or even four or five, grades are made from 
the crop from the same trees. It is customary to 
divide apples, for example, into first grade (often 
called "selects"), second grade (usually called 
•'firsts," "XX," or even ''XXX,"), and culls 
(which in years of scarcity go to market as "sec- 
onds " ) . 



GRADING AND PACKING 6l 

II. WHAT IS FIRST-GRADE FRUIT? 

Occasionally some one gets up an argument over 
what should constitute a first-grade apple, peach, or 
pear ; and from time to time some well-meaning com- 
mittee of some horticultural society seeks to define 
specimens of the first, second, and third grade. In 
the market sense, however, such a thing as a first-grade 
apple or peach does not exist. The simple reason is 
that no marketman buys a single apple or peach. In 
the fruit market fruit is handled only in the original 
packages. First-grade apples means a package of 
apples of the first quality ; but a single apple which 
would be properly placed in one package of first-class 
apples might be below standard in another package of 
first-class apples. It would be possible to take two 
packages of first-grade apples, and simply by mixing 
them to make two packages of second-grade apples. 
In the same way it is poSvSible, by careful grading, 
sometimes to make two barrels of first-grade apples 
out of two barrels of seconds. I am assured that 
many commission men make good profits out of the 
careless customers by doing just such things as 
these. 

In other words, the terms ' ' select, " " first grade, ' ' 
" second grade," etc., are entirely relative. They do 
not refer to any absolute qualities of size, form, or 
color. The National Apple Shippers' Association, 
however, has adopted a definition for the different 
grades.* Even this definition, it will be seen, is largely 



♦The rules for the grading of apples, as adopted by the National Apple 

Shippers' Association in a resolution passed August 3, 1900, are as follows: 

" The standard for size for No. i apples shall not be less than 2>^ inches 



62 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

relative, and furnishes only an apparent contradiction 
of the generalization here set forth. " 

Three considerations, all more or less relative, 
chiefly govern the grading of fruit. These are (i) 
uniformity, (2) freedom from injury, (3) agreement 
with the mark. First-grade fruit must be uniform in 
size, color, and shape. Uniformity in size is far more 
important than mere bigness — in fact, overgrown 
fruits are rarely in demand. This is why an apple 
which would be admitted to the first grade in one lot 
would have to go with the second grade in another 
lot. This requirement of uniformity is the one chiefly 
to be considered in handling fruit. Until one learns to 
disregard the individual specimen and look at the 
package as a whole he is not competent to grade 
fruit. 

Fruit of the first grade (or "selects") must also 
be free from bruises, insect injuries, and all other 
defects. Many persons imagine this to be the princi- 
pal consideration in sorting; but, important as it is, it 
stands second always to uniformity. Where grading 
is very careful all injured specimens are excluded from 
the second grade as well as from the first. For 



in diameter, and shall include such varieties as the Ben Davis, Willow 
Twig, Baldwin, Greening, and other varieties kindred in size. The 
standard for such varieties as Romanite, Russet, Winesap, Jonathan, 
Missouri Pippin, and other varieties kindred in size shall not be less than 
2j^ inches. And, further. No. i apples shall be at time of packing prac- 
tically free from the action of worms, defacement of surface, or breaking 
of skin; shall be hand-picked from the tree, a bright and normal color, 
and shapely form. 

" No. 2 apples shall be hand-picked from the tree; shall not be smaller 
than 2i^ inches in diameter. The skin must not be broken or the apple 
bruised. This grade must be faced and packed with as much care as No. i 
fruit. ' ' 



GRADING AND PACKING 63 

instance, some successful apple shippers make four 
grades, about as follows: 

1. ' ' Selects. ' ' — Extra fine specimens only ; uniform 
in size, color, and form, and without blemish. 

2. ''Firsts.'' — Good fruits, but not so fine as 
"selects"; uniform in size, color and form, and prac- 
tically free from scab, insect injury, or other defect. 

3. ''Seconds.'' — Mostly good, eatable fruit, fairly 
uniform, and not conspicuously marked by insect, 
fungus, or other damage. 

4. "Culls.'' — These usually go to the cider-mill, 
the dry-house, or the cattle-pen. 

First-grade fruit, furthermore, must be true to the 
mark on the package. If the mark specifies Elberta 
the peaches inside must be Elbertas, and must look 
like Elbertas. They must conform to the accepted 
type of the variety named. Burbank and Chabot 
plums may be of the same size, and they may look 
very much alike, but they must not be mixed together; 
and a basket of Burbanks must not be labeled Chabot. 

III. THK DESIGNATION OF GRADES 

The terms by which the various grades of fruit are 
designated are not well fixed nor generally under- 
stood ; in fact, the ver}^ opposite is the case. Mr. 
A. W. Grindley, agent of the Canadian government 
in Liverpool, tells me that the marks which appear on 
fruit barrels shipped there from Canada and the United 
States are of the most diverse and confusing nature. 
First-quality fruit may be marked simply "XX," or 
it may be "XXX," or "XXXX," or even more; 



64 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

and Mr. Grindley assures me that he saw one consign- 
ment of Canadian apples arrive on the Liverpool docks 
marked with a row of eighteen X's — and they weren't 
very good apples either ! 

It is customary to call the first grade of all sorts of 
fruit ' ' select, " " extra, " or " extra select, " or to 
brand it with as many X's as the shipper sees fit. 
There is even less agreement in the use of the X's, 
however, than in the use of the terms just mentioned. 
The next grade below " select, " "extra," or "extra 
select, ' ' is usually called ' ' firsts, " " A i , " or is desig- 
nated by one or two X's less than the ' ' selects ' ' of the 
same shipper. The third-grade fruit may go into the 
market marked " seconds," but it is more likely to be 
marked "X" or "XX"; or if the .second grade is 
marked " A i " the third grade is simply " i." 

Some attempt has recently been made in Canada to 
secure a uniform syvStem of grading and marking, es- 
pecially of fruit for export. The system of marks 
proposed by the Ontario Fruit Growers' Association 
is as follows: * 

(i) X A No. I. Sound apples or pears of uni- 
formly large size and high color for the variety named, 
of normal form; at least ninety per cent free from 
worm holes, scabs, or other defects. 

(2) A No. I. Sound apples or pears of nearly 
uniform size and good color for the variety named, of 
normal form; at least ninety per cent free from worm 
holes, scabs, or other defects. 

(3) No. I. Sound apples or pears of fairly uni- 



* The law recently passed by the Canadian Parliament covering this 
point is given in full in the Appendix. 



GRADING AND PACKING 



65 



form size; at least eighty per cent free from worm 
holes, scabs, or other defects. 

(4) No. 2. Apples or pears that are disqualified 
from being classed under any of the aforementioned 
grades, but which are useful for culinary purposes, 
and not less than two inches in diameter. 



IV. SORTING TABIvKS 

For grading fruits some kind of a sorting table is 
usually best. The size and character of this sorting 




FIG. 15 — APPLE SORTING TABLE. 

table are determined by the kind and quantity of fruit 
to be handled, and somewhat by other and more local 
circumstances. The larger the package to be filled 
the larger the table should be. As a general rule, 
subject to some exceptions, it may be said that the 
sorting table should be large enough to hold at once, 
and to display within reach of the man who grades, 
enough fruit to fill three packages. An apple sorting 
table, for instance, should be roomy enough so that 



66 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

three barrels of apples can be spread out on it at once. 
Under no circumstances should it hold less than two 
barrels. No man can make even grades with less 
fruit before him, especially when there is much varia- 
tion in the stock handled. For sorting grapes, 
peaches, and plums a considerably smaller table will 
do. If only one person is employed at this part of the 
work, any small table may be used with a strip two to 
four inches high running round to keep the fruit from 
rolling off. If a large quantity of fruit is to be 
handled, a long running table is demanded. This 
may conveniently slope slightly toward the sorters. 
The sorters may stand or be seated in a row at one 
side of this running table, while the fruit and pack- 
ages are delivered to them from the other side. 

The ingenuity of the manager must be chiefly 
depended on to make a sorting table to suit the par- 
ticular circumstances of any time and place ; but the 
fact must not be overlooked that a good sorting table, 
properly adapted to the work in hand, is one of the 
most efficient helps to economical and successful fruit 
handling. 

v. GOOD JUDGMENT IN GRADING 

The work of grading naturally requires good judg- 
ment based on long experience. The man who grades 
the fruit occupies the most responsible position in the 
organization of the fruit farm, next to the manager 
himself. On fruit plantations of moderate size the 
manager often does the grading with his own hands. 
For the sake of the supreme requirement — uniformity 
— it is evidently desirable also that the work of grading 



GRADING AND PACKING 67 

shall come as nearly as possible under the eye of a 
single person. If one man can handle all the fruit 
the sorting should be entrusted to him alone, and he 
should be as nearly an expert as can be found. Under 
any circumstances as few graders should be emploj^ed 
as possible. It is especially undesirable to have a 
picking gang of five or six persons who are always 
** trading jobs " with one another. 

When large quantities of fruit are to be handled 
into small packages girls are often employed. This is 
done for cheapness' sake, and may or may not result 
in poorer grading. Girls are usually hired to sort and 
pack grapes, and Mr. Hale employs girls for packing 
peaches. In all such cases, of course, the packing is 
done under the immediate supervision of an experi- 
enced foreman, who sees that the grading is properly 
attended to. 

Grading by machinery has been resorted to in some 
cases, especially with apples and peaches, and mechan- 
ical graders are occasionally offered for sale. They 
are not to be recommended, however. Grading is 
chiefly a matter of judgment, and a machine has no 
judgment. 

VI. FII,I,ING THB PACKAGE 

The manner in which the fruit is put into the 
package is a matter of some consequence. The per- 
fect arrangement of California fruits into the packages 
does much to make the goods attractive and to expe- 
dite sales. Even strawberry and blackberr}^ boxes may 
be advantageously faced if a good grade of fruit is 
going to a good market. 

Apples in this country are habitually faced at 



68 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

both ends of the barrel. The empty barrel is placed 
head down in front of the packer. A layer of good 
specimens is placed in concentric rings, stem end 
down, on this reversed head, and a second faced layer 
is placed on top of this. Some careful packers face 
three layers, but this is hardly necessary. After the 
two facing layers are in position, the barrel is filled 
nearly full by pouring in the sorted fruit from baskets, 
or by letting the apples roll over a padded curtain 
or sleeve from the sorting table. Finally two more 
layers of good specimens are laid on the top by hand. 
These are placed in concentric rings and faced toward 
the opposite head (in this ca.se the bottom) of the 
barrel. The last layer should protrude about two or 
three inches, this amount being taken up by the pres- 
sure when the head is put on. 

The head is then put on top of the apples either 
with or without a paper heading inside (see under 
" Fruit Package," Part IV.), and is forced down into 
place with a suitable press. This pressure is so 
great that the apples on the face are considerably 
bruised at times; but this seldom results in any loss, 
whereas insufficient pressure is often the source of 
serious damage to the fruit during shipment. The 
apples are apt to shrink measurably, either by trans- 
piration of water or by incipient decay, and this 
shrinkage immediately leaves the fruit loose in the 
barrel. If there is the slightest looseness during ship- 
ment, or when the barrels are handled, the apples 
shake about in the barrel, and are quickly bruised to 
their permanent injury — sometimes till they are totally 
spoiled for use. 



GRADING AND PACKING 



69 



Various barrel presses are in use for bringing the 
heads down into the chimes. The best and most 
popular form is undoubtedly the lever press shown in 
Fig. 16. A screw press (Fig. 17) is sometimes used, 
but is awkward and undesirable. 

Pears are handled in pretty much the same way as 
apples are, except that they are not so often packed 
in barrels. When they go into barrels, however, the 




FIG. 16 — ORDINARY LEVER 
PRESS FOR APPLE BARREL 



FIG. 17 — SCREW PRESS 
FOR BARRELS 



treatment is just the same as for apples, and when 
they go into boxes it is not much different. The use 
of boxes will be discussed further in the next chapter. 
The best peaches are packed one by one into 
baskets, and the top layers are carefully faced, the 
apex of each fruit being laid obliquely upward. The 
same order of packing is followed, whether the peaches 
are wrapped or not. Peaches of medium or inferior 
quality are not handled a fruit at a time. Especially 
in Delaware and Maryland, where the deep baskets are 
used, the fruit is picked or poured into the basket, only 



70 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

the top la3^er or two being faced. Sometimes even this 
small attempt at facing is omitted. 

I^arge and fancy plums are usually sold at the 
retail fruit stands in small quantities for eating out of 
hand. They are therefore packed in small boxes or 
baskets, and may or may not be wrapped. In either 
case they are faced. First quality plums not intended 
for the limited trade of the fancy fruit stands are 
packed into baskets, the top layer being sometimes 
faced. If the plums are large and attractive in appear- 
ance the facing is especially desirable. Small and dull 
colored plums gain little by being faced. 

Most other fruits of the temperate regions, when 
sent to the market in the fresh state, are not packed 
according to any recognized system. Each shipper 
follows his own ideas or the demands of his own 
market. This statement, however, refers only to 
methods of packing. The style of package is more a 
matter of prescription, and is more generally estab- 
lished by custom. We shall proceed to this important 
subject with the next chapter. 



PART FOUR 

The Fruit Package 



71 



THE FRUIT PACKAGE 



If there is one thing more than any other peculiar 
to the American fruit business, it is the American fruit 
package. Growers and shippers seldom realize this 
fact, and almost never grasp the full significance of it. 

I. THK AMERICAN FRUIT PACKAGE 

The characteristics of the American fruit package 
are cheapness, neatness, lightness, and uniformity. 
The packages must be cheap, because they are nearly 
always given away with the contents. The use of the 
gift package is elsewhere pointed out to be peculiar to 
the American trade. The American package is the 
neatest and most alluring that can be devised, for its 
attractiveness is largely depended on to sell the fruit. 
It is light and easily handled, a quality required when 
fruit is shipped in large quantities or when the pack- 
ages themselves are manufactured and shipped by 
thousands. The American package is the only one 
which lays any claim to uniformity, and this claim is 
asserted with some reason. There are still many 
''short " barrels in the apple trade, and there is much 
complaint, partly legitimate, of false bottoms in straw- 
berry boxes, and the "five-pound" grape basket 
sometimes holds a scant four pounds of fruit; yet 
after allowing for all the fully understood short pack- 
ages, and for all intentional fraud, it is still true that 

73 



/4 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

the American fruit packages are uniform to a most 
remarkable degree. 

There is much still to be done in securing hone.st 
uniformity of package, and the laws which have been 
passed in a few states * are efforts in the right direc- 
tion. For the most part, however, the conditions in 
the fruit market must be depended on to secure proper 
packing in honest packages. The commission man's 
returns are more influential with the average fruit 
grower than the laws of the state. I^egislation in 
these matters is depended on in Canada to a much 
greater extent than in the United States. Whether it 
is any more effective toward the ends sought may be 
fairly doubted. 

There are still many different kinds of packages in 
the American trade, a majority of which will be 
suppressed, perhaps, in the future evolution of our 
fruit industries. Those fruits which are most largely 
grown and shipped have the fewest styles of packages. 
Strawberries always come in quart boxes, crated. 
Apples practically always come in barrels. There are, 
thus, a number of recognized standard packages, the 
most important of which are as follows: The apple bar- 
rel, the strawberry box, the grape basket, the Dela- 
ware peach basket, and the Michigan peach basket. 

II. THE APPLE BARREL 

The standard apple barrel in the United States is 
practically the same as the ordinary flour barrel. In 
fact, emptied flour barrels are extensively used for 
packing apples. The apple barrel specij&ed by the 

* See Appendix. 



THE FRUIT PACKAGE 75 

American Apple Shippers' Association has the follow- 
ing dimensions: Staves, 28^2 inches; head, lyj^ inches; 
circumference in the middle, 64 inches. This barrel 
holds one hundred quarts, and is known as the " 100- 
quart barrel. ' ' 

In Nova Scotia, where the apple growers are, to 
some extent, a law unto themselves, a slightly differ- 
ent barrel is used. The regulation dimensions are: 
Head, iy}4 inches; bilge, 19 inches; stave, 29 inches. 
This gives a long barrel with a comparatively straight 
stave. When such a barrel is placed on its side it 
rests on the hoops and lies much more securely than 
the barrel of greater relative bilge. This is a very 
important matter in vshipping apples by steamer, as 
Canadian apples are largely shipped to Europe. A 
part of Nova Scotia's considerable success in the 
exportation of apples is due to the use of this 
barrel. 

Apple barrels are vSeldom bought ready built, except 
when empty flour barrels are used. The usual prac- 
tice is to buy the staveSj heads, and hoops at the saw- 
mills, and to have the barrels put together at a local 
cooper shop. Such a shop is usually to be found in 
every apple growing neighborhood doing business for 
several small growers. Large producers of apples 
commonly have their own coopering rooms. Here 
they make up their own barrels during rainy days, or 
else they have some itinerant cooper to come in and 
make them up when needed. 

The cost of apple barrels varies from $15 to $30 
the hundred. For the last two years it has been about 
J525 a hundred for good barrels. The cost is about the 



76 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

same whether flour barrels are bought or stock secured 
in the knock-down and put up by a cooper. 

As has already been remarked, empty flour barrels 
are often used for packing apples. When strong, 
fresh barrels are chosen and thoroughly cleaned there 
is little or no objection to their use ; but the least 
carelessness in this respect brings loss to the grower. 
When a buyer sees an old, stained, battered barrel he 
immediately rates the contents as poor, and refuses to 




FIG. iS — CARDBOARD BARREL HEAD LININGS 

pay anything but the minimum price. When a barrel 
is opened and the apples are found half covered with 
the flour which was needlessly left clinging in the 
chimes, the lot is once more relegated to the second 
class. It is the simplest matter in the world to lose 
twice the price of a good barrel in this way. Good 
fruit deserves a good package, and poor fruit will not 
sell without it. 

Certain small accessories are sometimes used with 
the apple barrel, though there is no uniformity in this 
matter. The most usual device is a paper reinforce- 
ment for the head, which protects the fruit somewhat 
from bruising when the head is pressed in and which 



THE FRUIT PACKAGE 



77 



takes up a certain amount of moisture to the advan- 
tage of the fruit. These false heads are sometimes 
made of old newspapers deftly folded. More often 
they are bought ready cut from heavy cardboard. 
A patented cushion head of corrugated paper, shown 
in Fig. 1 8, is manufactured by Frank B. Read, of 
New York and Philadelphia. 



III. BERRY PACKAGES 



Strawberries are always shipped in small boxes or 
cups, holding usually one quart each, but occasionally 




FIG. 19 — THE USUAL BERRY BASKET 

only a pint. (In Europe, I am told, berries are often 
sent to market in tubs, kegs, and such like utensils. 
It makes an American laugh just to hear of it.) 
These cups or boxes are made in various forms, some 
of the more usual being shown herewith — Figs. 19 
and 20. There is a general tendency toward the 
square box. The oblong, broken-cornered box is 
going rapidly out of fashion, and properly so. These 
boxes are usually made of wood veneer, but occasion- 



78 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

ally of paper. The paper box may become popular in 
the future, but it seems hardly probable. 

The quart boxes are always shipped in crates, each 
crate holding twelve, sixteen, twenty-four, thirty-six, 




FIG. 20 — SQUARE BERRY BASKET AND CRATE 




FIG. 21 — BERRY CRATE — COMMON FORM 



or forty-eight quart boxes. Larger sizes seem to be 
comparatively more popular southward, especially in 
the Baltimore market, while comparatively smaller 
sizes are preferred northward. The thirty-two quart 
crate is probably most common, and the sixteen, 
twenty-four, and thirty-two quart crates are vastly in 



THE FRUIT PACKAGE 



79 



the majority. Larger or smaller sizes are the excep- 
tion. 

These crates are strongly made of wood, sawed in 
strips as light as is compatible with strength, and 
firmly nailed together. Sometimes they are given 
metal bindings at the corners. The crates are fre- 
quently returned to the grower when shipped within a 
distance where express companies return empties free. 
Otherwise they become gift packages, just as grape 
baskets or plum boxes are. 

Raspberries, blackberries, dewberries (commonly 
sold as blackberries), gooseberries, and currants are 
nearly always sold in the same boxes and crates used 
for strawberries. 



IV. THE GRAPE BASKET 

Two standard packages are in use for grapes, the 
only difference between them being in point of size. 
One is the five- 
pound basket, the 
other the ten- 
pound basket. &-- 

The ten - pound ^^ "" 
baskets usually 
hold only a trifle 
over eight pounds 
of fruit, and the 
five-pound bas- 
kets usually only a 

little over four pounds; but as this is rather commonly 
understood, no one is greatl}^ deceived. Besides, grapes 
are always retailed by the basket, not by the pound. 




IIG. 22 — THE GRAPE BASKET 



8o FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

The grape basket is made of thin wood veneer, with 
a Hght w^ood binding at top and bottom. It has a 
Hght wooden cover which is fastened on with a special 
staple. It has a bail either of wood or of wire. There 
are comparatively few variations in the form of this 
package. 

The grape basket is frequently used for other 
fruits, particularly for plums. It is sometimes used 
for tomatoes, occasionally for pears, infrequently for 
persimmons, gooseberries, and currants, and I have 
even seen it used for fancy baking potatoes. It is the 
most generally convenient and handy package ever 
devised, and it is not at all strange that it should be 
put to a variety of uses. 



V. PEACH PACKAGES 

I can remember when peaches were commonly 
shipped in slat crates, the usual form being made with 

two compartments, each 
compartment holding ap- 
proximately a peck of fruit. 
This package has now been 
almost entirely abandoned 
for peaches, though a similar 
crate is still in use for a 
variety of the lesser fruits, 
being more commonly filled 
FIG. 23-DELAWARE PEACH ^ith pears, apples, peaches, 

BASKET , . ^ ^ 

plums, quinces, or tomatoes. 
But the peach business has taken up two strangely 
different baskets, the Delaware basket and the Mich- 
igan or Georgia basket. Recently a third style of 




THE FRUIT PACKAGE 



8l 



package, the "six-basket carrier," has been coming 
into vogue. 

The Delaware basket is in the form of the inverted 
frustum of a cone. It is made of wood splints, and 
sometimes has a splint 
cover. At other times 
the package is covered 
simply with mosquito 
netting or other cloth. 
This is more often the 
case when this basket is 
used for sweet potatoes, 
Irish potatoes, spinach, 
and other vegetables, as 
it frequently is. The 
Delaware basket comes 
in various sizes, one 
bushel, one- third bushel, 
and half bushel, with 
various ' ' short ' ' sizes 
between. In New Jersey 

the size of this package has been the subject of 
legislation.* 

The splint star cover, as shown in Fig. 24, is 
sometimes used for this basket, but not commonly, in 
shipping peaches from Maryland, Delaware, and New 
Jersey. 

The Michigan peach basket, which is essentially 
the same as the Georgia peach basket, is shown in 
Fig. 25. This is much like the standard grape basket, 
the chief difference being in the matter of the cover. 

* See Appendix. 




FIG. 24 — WIDE SLAT DELAWARE 
BASKET WITH SPLINT COVER 



82 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

The peach basket cover is made of .slats nailed to 
curved supports at either end. This package varies 
somewhat in size, but the usual sizes are pecks and 
fifth-bushels. 

The third and newest form of peach package is the 




FIG. 25— MICHIGAN PEACH BASKET 




FIG. 26 — SIX-BASKET CARRIER 

six-basket carrier. This carrier is merely a neat slat 
crate, of much the same form as the strawberr}^ crate, 
and just large enough to hold the six small wood 
veneer baskets. These baskets hold approximately a 
half peck, so that the six-basket carrier handles about 



THE FRUIT PACKAGE 83 

three-fourths of a bushel of fruit. The baskets fit 
into the carrier in two layers, one above and one below, 
with a thin slat false staging between to prevent the 
bruising of the lower tier. This makes an extremely 
neat and convenient package, and one which has been 




FIG. 27 — SIX-BASKET CARRIER, CHEAPER FORM 

used with considerable success by shippers of fancy 
peaches. It is well suited to good grades of other 
fruits, vsuch as plums, apricots, persimmons, hothouse 
tomatoes, etc. During the present .season, 1901, Mr. 
J. H. Hale has been using this same carrier with 7iine 
shallower baskets for shipping plums. It is naturally 
a package for select grades only, and is not to be 
recommended for cheap stock. 

VI. APPLES IN BOXES 

There is a strong tendency among progressive fruit 
growers at the present time to offer fancy apples in 
packages smaller and more attractive than the stand- 
ard apple barrel. Baskets have sometimes been em- 
ployed, but the general effort seems to reach toward 
some kind of box. 



84 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 



The use of some such small, convenient, and at- 
tractive package for fancy apples is amply justified on 
theoretical grounds, and its adoption is only a question 
of time and of evolution in the trade. Already some 
sellers have been successful with small packages, and 
the more unsatisfactory experience of other shippers 
is usually fairly attributable to the conservatism of the 




FIG 



SHEPHERD S APPLE BOX 



market. It takes a while for any new thing to become 
established, however meritorious it may be. Commis- 
sion men generally have held out against the small 
package for apples, and their influence is naturally 
great. 

One of the best, and certainly the most successful, 
apple box of which I know is the one used by Mr. 
R. W. Shepherd, of Montreal, for the fancy export 



THK FRUIT PACKAGE 



85 



trade. This box, shown in Fig. 28, is solidly built of 
wood in sizes computed to fit the apples. Each case 
holds from one hundred and ninety-six to two hundred 
and twenty-four apples, according to size of the 
fruit. Inside the box pasteboard partitions are used, 
precisely like those commonly found in egg cases, 
except, of course, that the pasteboard compartments 
are larger. These cases cost about forty cents each in 




FIG. 29 — MR. WOOLVERTON'S APPLE BOX 

quantity, and weigh sixty to seventy-five pounds 
each when filled. Mr. Shepherd uses these exclu- 
sively for his fancy export trade, and ships in them 
only the best fruit of a few special varieties, chiefly 
Fameuse, Mcintosh, and St. Lawrence, and these only 
on order. 

Another apple box, used by Mr. L. Woolverton, 
of Grimsby, Ontario, is shown in Fig. 29. This box 
holds a bushel, and will carry one hundred and twenty- 
eight apples of approximately two and one-half inches 
diameter. Each specimen is wrapped in paper. Mr. 



86 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

Woolverton, as the result of ten years' experience, • 
finds this box useful for the exportation of fancy 
apples, but does not believe it can be profitably adopted 
for common stock or for local market. 

VII. OTHER FRUITS AND PACKAGES 

Various other packages are in use for one and 
another purpose. One of the most convenient and 
useful is the round splint basket with handles at 




FIG. 30 — SPLINT BUSHEL BASKET 

the sides, as shown in Fig. 30. This basket comes 
principally in two sizes, bushel and half bushel. The 
half bushel is sometimes used for peaches, quinces, or 
tomatoes, and perhaps also for apples. The larger 
size is used for apples, potatoes, etc. This is a handy 
basket for farm use and may be adapted to various 
fruits in special circumstances. It is not recognized as 
standard for anything, however. 



THE FRUIT PACKAGE 



87 



The slat crate, Fig, 31, has already been referred 
to as formerly much used for peaches. It is still used, 
mainly by small shippers, for many fruits, such as 
peaches, pears, apples, quinces, and more often for 




FIG. 31 — SLAT CRATE USED FOR VARIOUS FRUITS 
AND VEGETABLES 




FIG. 32 — SMALL BOX FOR FANCY FRUITS AND VEGETABLES 



vegetables, such as beans, peas, tomatoes, cucumbers, 
onions, etc. Various sizes and modifications of the 
slat crate are extensively used by southern truckers, 
from Norfolk down the coast, for shipping cabbage, 
cauliflov^er, spinach, and all sorts of vegetables. 



88 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORINCx, MARKETING 



VIII. SUMMARY OF PACKAGES 

The various packages chiefly used in shipping 
fruits are arranged in the following tabulation, which 
also shows the approximate cost. 



Fruit 



Apple 



Package 

Barrel, loo quarts, or 3 
bushels 

Box, various sizes . 

Slat crate, mostly half 
bushel 

Basket, mostly bushel . 



r Delaware basket . . 
-p , J Michigan basket, one-fifth 
^^^^^ ] bushel ..... 

i Six-basket carrier . 



Pear 



Barrel, 3 bushels . . 
Half barrel, \% bushels 
Boxes and baskets of va 
rious kinds. 



Cost 



$25 the 100 
Variable 



$4.50 the 100 

$1 to $1.25 a doz. 

$2 to $3 the 100 

$3 the 100 

$7 to $10 the 100. 

$25 the 100 

$15 to $20 the 100 



Plum 



Cherry 



Quince 



Grape basket, 10 pounds 
Six-basket carrier . . 



$2.50 the 100 

$7 to $10 the 100. 



f Strawberry quart boxes 

and crates Quart boxes, $2 to $3 

the 1,000; i6-quart 
crates, $5 to $6 the 
100 



5-pound grape basket. 

Slat crate, % bushel . . 

^ " . . . 
" I '• . . . 

I Baskets in various styles, 
l^ Also barrels. 



Berries \ Quart boxes in crates 



$3 the 100 
$4.50 the 100 
$7 the ICO 



r Quart boxes, $2 to $3 
I the 1,000 
J i6-quart crates, $5 to 
I $6 the 100 

24-quart crates, $7 to 
[ $15 the 100 



THK FRUIT PACKAGE 89 

IX. WRAPPING FRUITS 

California fruits, which are in many ways a model 
to every shipper, frequently come to eastern markets 
wrapped in tissue paper. Hustling eastern shippers 
have experimented somewhat extensively along this 
same line, but, apparently, without having arrived at 
any very definite conclusion. It may be safely said, 
however, that only the fanciest grades of fruit will 
pay for the expense of paper and wrapping. Canadian 
fruit growers, who send a greater proportion of their 
products to the European markets, have naturally 
done relatively more with this matter and have had 
more positive results. When our export fruit trade 
reaches greater proportions we shall doubtless do more 
wrapping in the states. There are already various 
brands of paper on the market in cut sizes suitable for 
fruit wrapping. Any grower who is producing a fancy 
grade of fruit for a fancy market is advised to try 
wrapping in an experimental way. Others had better 
let it alone. 

X. MARKS ON PACKAGES 

Very much of the grower's success depends on 
making a reputation for his fruit — much more than is 
commonly supposed. The man who ships to the city 
market frequently imagines that his identity is lost 
sight of and his responsibilit)^ swallowed up in the 
mixture of all men's products in the commmission 
house. This may be the case to some extent, but it 
need not be so at all. If a grower has any expectation 
of staying in the business and any ambition to make 
what money he can out of it, it will be much better for 



90 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

him to maintain his own responsibiHty for his own 
fruit and get all the credit he can out of it. 

A few commission men, especially in European 
markets, object to having a grower's private mark on 
the package. In this country most dealers welcome 
such an advertisement from the grower. The simplest 



SupenorQueklity Fully Guaranteed 

HALE'S FRUITS 

^*AYS BEST IN MARKET : 

5cientlficAlly (Srirown • Ripened on the Tree 



l^pl^f LARGEST PEACH GROWERS IN THE WORLD 

PTRTES^I^S^OOJree, ^^RCHARD CO. ^i^^-^ ., .. 



SAME ALL THROUGH U.C.TOP-U.G. ALL 



FIG. 33 — THE FAMOUS HALE LABEL — ALWAYS PRINTED IN RED, 
AND PUT ON SELECT GRADES OF FRUIT ONLY 




way is for the grower to stencil his name and address, 
or the name of his fruit farm, on each package. I 
have heard some wise horticulturists recommend the 
propriety of adopting 'an appropriate and attractive 
name for the fruit farm for the specific purpose of 
advertising in this way. Some growers use a sort of 
trade-mark. One apple grower of my acquaintance 
marks his fancy fruit with a crown on each barrel head. 
When his commission man, who has handled this fruit 
for years, gets a barrel stenciled wdth a crown it goes 



THK FRUIT Px\CKAGE 



FANCY MELONS 

FROM THE SAME FELLOW WHO GROWS 




vJuperiorQ.uaIiry»nd Uniform Grade 
- Cuaranreed by Tlii5 Lb-bel on 

Hales Peaches 

A L ^TiV^NE 15^ ro OCTOBER S^^^^tf f . 

._ xScientTFicz^lly Crown and Ripened on'tKe Tree ' 
MarKered.byadva.-ncedMetHods •- 






■P^^sUrcebt Peach Grov/irs , . , . nr\ rr\ /^<^'<«5B 
lk&T''Vy h A 1 IS nPOP** a.H. HALE. PRE3. V^ "J 

■tll»''ir '^L^ U»-*^ 6DUTM <:L»3XONBURV,CO»iN>^.|^H 






;SAME ALL TKROUGM"UC.T0[>UC.ALL 





FIG. 34 — HALE'S MELON LABEL — A COMBINATION OF A BLACK 
LABEL (above) WITH THE USUAL RED LABEL 



at the fanciest price of the day without further exam- 
ination. The most noted private mark in this country 
is the famous red label of Mr. J. H. Hale, of Connecti- 
cut and Georgia. His device is reproduced (without 
the red color) in Figs. 33 and 34. It has been worth 
thousands of dollars to him. 

This matter of a suitable and effective private mark 
for the fruit package is one to be seriously considered 
by every grower. 



PART FIVE 



Fruit Storage 



FRUIT STORAGE 



Some sort of storage facilities are almost indis- 
pensable in the management of the fruit business for 
profit. They allow fruit to be carried over a season 
of glut, and so help the grower, even though the 
storage be owned by the speculator and operated in 
his interest. Fruit storage is most useful to the fruit 
grower, however, when it is kept in his own posses- 
sion, or at least within his own management, for it 
makes him in a greater or less degree independent of 
the buyer and speculator — often remarkably so. It 
may be safely said that the fruit business can not be 
conducted on a large scale, except wdth a few of the 
more perishable fruits, without adequate provision for 
storage, either on the grower's own premises or in 
rented storage rooms. 

I. REQUIREMENTS 
The requirements for successful storage of fruits 
are three : (i) good fruit ; (2) proper handling; (3) 
reasonable control of temperature in the storage room. 
We will consider these in order. 

Quality of the fntit. — There are two reasons why 
poor fruit should never be put in storage. First, it 
does not keep. The shrinkage and loss are sure to be 
excessive. Second, the fruit is not worth it. Fruit 
storage is comparatively expensive business, and poor 

95 



96 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

fruit will not pay for the extra trouble. The fine 
stables which the trotting-horse man has for his five- 
thousand-dollar racers would be wasted if used for the 
vScrub ponies of the Texas ranges. Many men make the 
mistake of putting inferior fruit into storage ; and when 
they fail, as they inevitably must, they condemn the 
whole storage business. I have heard some of those 
men .speak in the horticultural societies. 

Handling the fruit. — Two things are usually 
(though not always) necessary in handling the fruit 
if success is to be expected in storage. These are: 
(i) careful sorting and (2) subsequent rest. 

A few men succeed fairly well in storing apples, 
grapes, and plums without sorting, or with only par- 
tial sorting. The only safe rule, however, is to sort 
all fruit carefully before sending it to the storage room. 
Wormy and diseased specimens must all be removed. 
A rotting plum or apple spreads the infection quickly 
to all the fruits which it touches. This fact is so well 
supported by wide experience that it need not be 
argued any further. 

After the fruit has been picked, sorted, and put 
into storage, however, it should be left alone. Any 
further handling will do more damage than good. 
This rule is almost imperative. Many men think it 
necessary, or, at least, advisable, to go over fruit in 
the storage room from time to time and remove decay- 
ing specimens ; but all experience goes to prove that 
this is bad practice. 

Regarding the time when fruit should be picked to 
be put into storage there is the greatest diversity of 



FRUIT storage: 97 

Opinion. It is evident that no general rule can be 
given. Spy apples should be left on the trees until 
colored if possible, even though that may keep them 
there a month after the first frost comes. Most pears, 
on the other hand, should be picked before fairly ripe, 
or even while yet green, and should be put into storage 
to ripen. Peaches and plums should be picked before 
quite mature. Varieties of apples which drop badly, 
like Wagener and St. Lawrence, must be picked early, 
while those which hold on well, like Tolman and Red 
Canada, are better left later. Practice will evidently 
vary with variety, locality, and special circumstances. 
Even with the same trees in the same orchard early 
picking may be advisable one year and late picking 
another. Weather conditions throughout the ripening 
season, and especially at picking time, exercise a very 
important influence. As nearly as one may make any 
generalization for apples, it would probably be nearest 
the truth to say that they should be left on the trees 
as long as circumstances make it safe for them to be 
there. For pears one might say that they should be 
picked and stored as soon as they have attained their 
full size and are partially colored. Plums, peaches, 
and similar fruits should be picked as soon as feasible. 
Grapes, like apples, should be left as late as they safely 
may be. 

II. SYSTEJMS OF STORAGE 

There are practically three systems of storage for 
fruit, differing in the manner in which the temperature 
is reduced. These are: (i) mechanical refrigeration, 
(2) ice refrigeration, (3) cooling by ventilation. 



98 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

These are named in the reverse order of their impor- 
tance, judged merely on the basis of their adaptability 
to the needs of the fruit grower. 

I. Mechanical refrigeratio7i. — There are various 
systems of mechanical refrigeration, but the plan of 
this book makes a consideration of them unnecessary. 
Mechanical refrigeration undoubtedly furnishes the 
ideal cold storage, giving the most direct and easy 
control of temperature, usually at least expense when 
large quantities are handled, and generally with best 
results. The expense of installing and maintaining a 
plant, however, places mechanical refrigeration out of 
reach of the fruit grower, and makes it a business by 
itself. Even Judge Wellhouse, "the Apple King," 
with his hundreds of acres of bearing orchard, finds it 
better to rent cold storage room than to build a refrig- 
erating plant of his own. I think I am literally correct 
in saying that there is not a single fruit grower, com- 
pany, or association to-day in America maintaining a 
private storage plant cooled by machinery. 

The fruit grower is interested in this system of 
storage, therefore, only indirectly. Space in cold 
storage compartments is frequently rented by fruit 
growers, this being usually their sole connection with 
the business. The only practical questions under 
these circumstances are: ( i ) Is this method of storage 
successful ? ( 2 ) What does it cost ? 

In theory mechanicall}^ cooled storage ought to be 
the most successful sort. Practically it does not seem 
to be conspicuoUvSly so. The drawbacks are : first, 
that refrigerating plants are not constructed primarily 



FRUIT STORAGE 99 

for the accommodation of fruit, but rather for meat, 
butter, eggs, and other merchandise; and, second, 
that proper adjustment of temperature and ventilation 
have seldom been secured. The latter difficulty is 
usually due either to ignorance or carelessness, and 
might be corrected; the former is harder to reach. In 
some cases, where storage rooms cooled by machinery 
have been properly managed, the results have been all 
that could be desired. 

As to cost, there is great variation in practice. 
The business of fruit storage in rented rooms is not 
yet common enough so that the owners of storage 
houses have been able to make a uniform rate. More- 
over, circumstances differ greatly in different parts of 
the country. Roughly, the expense ranges from ten 
to twenty-five cents a barrel a month, or from twenty- 
five to fifty cents a barrel for the season of six months. 
Fifty cents a barrel for six months may be looked on 
as the standard rate, but a standard which is seldom 
maintained. Material reductions are made when quan- 
tities of fruit are stored, and the rate is reduced for 
various other considerations, so that thirty to thirty- 
five cents a barrel for the season comes nearer being 
the rate usually paid. 

These prices are reckoned for apples in barrels. 
Other fruit, as grapes, peaches, or strawberries, is 
sometimes stored for periods varying from a few days 
to several weeks. In such cases rates are fixed by 
agreement. There is no accepted standard. 

2. Ice refrigeratio7i. — The use of ice for cooling 
fruit storage rooms is often practicable on farms, 

fLofC. 



lOO FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 



especially in the northern states and in Canada. The 
principal difficulty is that the ice is needed chiefly in 
the late fall, so that it has to be carried all summer, 
through the full season of greatest waste. Usually, 
however, a comparatively small quantity is required, 
merely enough to cool down the rooms and the fruit 
when the storage season com- 
mences. 

It is practically necessary, 
to make use of ice for cooling 
a storage room, that the ice 
be placed in a room or 
chamber above the storage 
space, unless some special 
system is used such as is 
described hereafter. This ne- 
cessity presents a serious 
inconvenience — namely, that 
the ice cannot usually be 
stored and kept where it is to 
be used. If the fruit storage 
room could be under the ice 
house the arrangement would 
be ideal and the whole thing 
could be planned with ease. 
But it is highly impracticable 
to make an ice house of the 
second story of a fruit house 
and to keep ice there through 
the entire summer. This means, practically, that 
under ordinary circumstances the fruit house and the 
ice house must be separate. They may be close to- 




- IS 1 -. 



FIG. 35 — SECTION Ol- 
STORAGE HOUSE DE- 
SIGNED BY FAVILLE 
AND HALL 



FRUIT STORAGE 



lOI 



gether, or even built one against the other; but when 
the fruit room is to be cooled the ice has to be handled 
out of its storage quarters and put where it is needed. 
The usual method of using ice for cooling a fruit 
room is to place it in quantity in a room above, 
arranging the ventilation so as to let the cool air flow 
down from the ice room into the fruit room and the 




FIG. 36 — CROSS SECTION OF FAVILLE-HALL STORAGE HOUSE 



warm air to be carried off through flues or shafts. The 
cool air is best allowed to flow down at the sides of 
the building behind guides, which bring it nearly to the 
floor, in which case the warm air exit is placed in the 
center of the room and opens near the ceiling. The 
accompanying illustration of a storage house described 
by Faville and Hall (Kansas Experiment Station 
Bulletin 84, April, 1899) shows this arrangement 
reversed, the cool air coming in near the middle of the 



I02 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

ceiling and the warm air going up at the sides. If 
the house were arranged exactly as shown in the 
diagram, however, the circulation would be mostly in 
the upper part of the room, the air below remaining 
comparatively stagnant. 

With regard to this particular building, Messrs. 
Faville and Hall say that it is designed to be located in 
a hillside of such a slope that the first floor will be on 
the level of the surface at one end and the second floor 
a few feet above the surface at the other. The build- 
ing is i8 X 38 feet, interior measurement, two stories in 
hight, and divided into four rooms, two on each floor. 
On the second floor is the ice-storage room, 18x21 
feet, in which the future supply of ice is stored, and 
the ice chamber, 15X 16 feet, in which is held the ice 
that cools the refrigerating room directly below. A 
door in the ice chamber communicates with the out- 
side. This is for the unloading of ice and is the only 
outside entrance into the second story. The refriger- 
ating room is i6x 18 feet, and is the compartment in 
which the temperature is to be reduced, and in which 
perishable products are to be stored. I^eading into 
this room is the cooling room, i8x 21, which is to be 
used as a general purpose storage cellar. A small 
entrance room protects the doorway into the cooling 
room. This is the only entrance to the ground floor. 
. . . The flooring is laid tight in the storage room and 
provided with a slope toward the center. A gutter 
catches the drainage and carries it into the gutter from 
the ice chamber. To prevent leakage the floor of the 
storage room must have a sheet-iron covering. The 
floor of the ice chamber is laid with 2 x 4-inch lumber 



FRUIT STORAGE 



103 



WAi'iiiil/- 




FIG. 37 — ICE PIPES WITH WASTE TROUGH BELOW 

with I -inch spaces between. This provides for air 
circulation and water drainage. A sloping catch floor 
leads the water into the gutter which carries it down 
and out through the cooling room. 

Another method of cooling storage rooms with ice 
has come under the writer's observation in the cold 
storage houses of Smith Wright & Sons, Williston, 
Vt. These storage warehouses have been in success- 



I04 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

ful Operation for many years, and are used chiefly for 
storing dressed poultry, butter, and eggs. Around 
the sides of each storage room are set a series of verti- 
cal pipes. These are made of galvanized iron or steel, 
and have a diameter of approximately 8 inches each. 
These pipes stand closely side by side in a single rank. 
The entire row sits in a wooden trough, which carries 
off the water as the ice melts. The pipes extend 
through the ceiling of the storage room and terminate 
in a broad trough in the room above. In this upper 




FIG. 38— TROUGHS FROM WHICH ICE TUBES ARE FED 

room the work of icing the tubes is carried on. The 
ice is brought from the ice house on a suitable slide, 
and is crUvShed in a machine in the passage below. The 
crushed ice is swung up by a horse and tackle to the 
workroom above the storage room. Here the crushed 
ice is mixed with salt in definite proportions, and is fed 
into the cooling tubes by being shoveled into the 
trough already mentioned. The entire storage room 
is cooled in this way with the crushed ice and salt mix- 
ture, and operates, in fact, like a large ice-cream 
freezer. Any practicable temperature may be secured 



FRUIT STORAGE IO5 

in this way and maintained without serious variation. 
For holding dressed poultry a temperature of 14 to 15 
degrees is kept the year round. The temperature is 
controlled by regulating the proportion of salt mixed 
with the ice. From 10 to 20 per cent of salt, by 
weight, is used for temperatures ranging from 45 to 
12 degrees. 

This construction has been found to be compara- 
tively inexpensive in its first cost, to be fairly durable, 
economical, and efficient. The application of the same 
method to the cooling of fruit storage rooms seems to 
be entirely feasible. A room required for the storage 
of apples or grapes could be cooled down at the time 
the crop was brought in, and the required low tem- 
perature could be secured at the critical season of the 
year— that is to say, in early fall. This is the time 
when the common storage room, cooled only by venti- 
lation, presents its greatest shortcomings. If ice 
could be used for the first cooling of the newly picked 
fruit and to tide over warm spells in early fall, ventila- 
tion could be depended on with greater confidence for 
the remainder of the season. 

The same principle has been used elsewhere — for 
instance, in Canada, in dairy refrigeration, and has 
proved entirely satisfactory. (See Canada Com. Ag. 
and Dairying Report, 1897, P- 5^-) 

Mr. Arthur H. Hill, who has carefully examined 
this Williston storage plant, believes that the plan may 
be easily adapted to the needs of fruit storage. He 
plans to build an apple house employing this arrange- 
ment of pipes, and the construction which he has de- 
vised is shown further on in this chapter. 



I06 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

3. Cooling by vaitilatio7i. — Probably the most prac- 
ticable, and certainly the most economical, method of 
storage for farm use and for the ordinary fruit grower 
is that which depends solely on ventilation for regula- 
tion of the temperature. At first thought it seems 
that such means would prove inadequate, but wide 
experience has shown that, properly managed, a house 
cooled by ventilation is perfectly satisfactory for fruit 
storage in any of the northern states. This method 
grows less and less satisfactor)^, of course, as one 
moves southward, and I do not believe it is to be 
recommended for districts warmer than central New 
Jersey or central Missouri. It will succeed many 
times south of that latitude and will fail many times 
north of there. In the northern states and the prov- 
inces of Canada this system may be adopted with per- 
fect confidence. 

The requirements are about as follows : First, 
thorough insulation against outside changes of tem- 
perature ; second, adequate ventilation ; third, careful 
and constant attention, especially when the fruit is 
first put in, and before. 

Walls are best made in two or three layers, with 
dead-air spaces between. The typical wall for a stor- 
age house of this sort is built upon 2x4 studding. On 
the outside there is laid first a course of good inch 
boards ; over this is placed one or two layers of build- 
ing paper, and the wall is finished with a course of 
tight, well-matched novelty siding. Inside the wall is 
built in much the same way. There is put on first a 
layer of inch boards, then one or two layers of paper, 
and finally the whole is ceiled and heavily painted. 



FRUIT STORAGE 107 

The painting is very important, as it preserves the 
ceiling from the disastrous swelling and shrinking 
which it would otherwise inevitably suffer through 
taking up the moisture given off by the stored fruit. 

If still greater pains are to be taken to make a wall 
impervious to heat two dead-air spaces are provided. 
These are secured by running furring strips along the 
sides of the studs between the outer and inner walls, 
and by lathing and plastering on these. When such a 
wall is built it is best to make the studs 2x6. Such a 
wall costs considerably more ; but it is very much safer 
and well worth the extra expense. 

Ventilation is secured only by means of windows 
in the houses commonly built. Even these are fre- 
quently placed with less regard to the currents of air 
which they will furnish than to the appearance which 
they will make on the outside of the building. Win- 
dows ought to be fewer and properly constructed venti- 
lators more numerous — the fewer windows the better, 
in fact. 

A ventilating system consists of an intake for cold 
air and an outlet for warm air, the two being properly 
disposed with reference to each other, and so arranged 
as to serv^e all parts of the room. The cold air should 
be admitted hear the bottom of the room, or should 
be conducted there by suitable guides. Perhaps the 
ideal arrangement is to have the intake brought in 
beneath the floor, and to have the cold air brought up 
through registers at such points as may seem best. 
The warm- air exit must be placed in the upper part of 
the room. It acts much like a chimney, and the draft 
in it will be good or bad in accordance with the same 



I08 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

laWvS which govern the chimney draft. The length of 
the warm-air shaft is therefore of some importance. 
If the room is more than sixteen feet long there should 
be two ventilators ; and, if very long, there should be 
one for every twelve to sixteen feet of running length. 
For a room 1 2 x 12x8 feet the warm-air flue should be 
about 12 inches square, inside measure, with a length 
of 6 to 12 feet. It is a very good plan to have a light 
wire shelf placed inside the warm-air flue and some- 
where near its middle hight. On this shelf a lighted 
lamp can be placed when a draft is required and 
when the difference of temperature outside and inside 
the house is not sufficient to start a circulation 
promptly. 

Whatever the arrangement of ventilators, great 
care and constant attention are required to reduce the 
temperature by their assistance alone, particularly 
early in the fall while the days are still warm. The 
fruit house should be closed up tightly several days or 
even weeks before the fruit is to be put in. The win- 
dows should be closely blinded. Then whenever there 
comes a cool evening the cold air drafts should be 
opened. If the night promises to be decidedly cool — 
cooler than the temperature already secured inside the 
house — the windows and doors may be thrown open. 
Then windows and doors must be closed early in the 
morning before the sun shines into the room and 
warms it all up again. As the temperature rises all 
the ventilators must be closed to prevent further circu- 
lation. Thus, by opening the ventilators nights and 
closing days, the temperature of the storage room is 
slowly reduced. When nights begin to be frosty the 



FRUIT STORAGE IO9 

temperature can be reduced somewhat sharply, and if 
the house is well built there is very little loss during 
the day of the capital gained at night. An entirely 
satisfactory storage temperature of thirty-six to forty 
degrees may be secured in this way under favorable 
circumstances before the first of November, and a lit- 
tle later this can be reduced to thirty-two to thirty- 
four degrees. 

III. HANDLING THE FRUIT 

The old-fashioned way of handling pears in storage 
is to place them on shelves. These shelves are usually 
narrow and shallow. The plan of using shelving in 
the storage room has been applied to all sorts of fruit, 
and is still used to some extent, especially where only 
a small amount is to be handled. This is not practi- 
cable for large quantities of fruit, however, and prob- 
ably its advantages under any conditions are largely 
imaginary. 

A modification of the shelf arrangement is still 
used by the Colorado apple growers, and in a few 
other places where fruit is stored in shallow bins. 
This reduces the labor somewhat. 

Vegetables are often, perhaps usually, placed in 
bins in the storage room. 

The method now most commonly applied to fruits, 
however, is to store them in the packages. Apples 
are nearly always stored in barrels, grapes in baskets, 
peaches in baskets, and so on. This is, all things con- 
sidered, the best and most convenient way. 

There is a difference of opinion among apple 
growers as to whether barrels ought or ought not to 



no FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

be headed up when put into storage. According to 
the writer's view it is largely a matter of convenience. 
If the barrels are to be emptied and the fruit resorted 
before being sent to market, it is better to leave the 
heads out. On the other hand, if the apples are to be 
shipped without further sorting they may as well be 
headed up at once, and the barrels will handle more 
easily. 

There is also a difference of opinion as to whether 
apple barrels should stand on end or lie on the side in 
storage. It is hard to see how there could be any 
difference one way or the other. 

The amount of fresh, warm fruit put into a storage 
room at one time should not be excessive. It is better 
to fill a room slowly, allowing time for each lot to cool. 
When a large quantity of fruit is placed in the storage 
room at one time it requires a considerable while for it 
to be cooled down. 

IV. TEMPERATURES 

Fruit storage does not require a very low tem- 
perature. In fact, the temperature is necessarily 
much higher than that used for butter or meat 
storage. The freezing point may be looked on as the 
minimum for fruit, whereas it is the maximum for 
meat. This simplifies the problem and reduces the 
expense. 

The best storage temperatures for all sorts of fruits 
and vegetables have not been determined. Far from 
it. A fairly precise knowledge has been gained from 
experience with certain kinds more commonly stored; 
but while the following table presents the best data 



FRUIT STORAGE 



II 



now available, it cannot be regarded as infallible, or 
as more than approximately correct. 

approximate; temperatures for storing fruits 
and vegetables 





Degrees 




Degrees 


Apples, summer 


. 36—42 


Strawberries 


36—44 


Apples, winter. 


32—35 


Potatoes . . . 


36—40 


Pears, summer 


36—44 


Onions . . . 


34—38 


Pears, winter . 


33—38 


Cabbage . . . 


34—36 


Peaches . . . 


36-38 


Beets .... 


36—40 


Plums . . . 


36—42 


Turnips . . . 


34—40 


Cherries . . . 


38—40 


Celery. . . . 


34—38 


Grapes . . . 


32—36 







Different varieties, however, even of the same 
class of fruits, often require different temperatures 
for best results. Judge Wellhouse writes me, saying : 
' ' We have found that different varieties require a 
different temperature, but just what temperature is 
best for each variety we have yet to learn. Jona- 
than requires a much higher temperature than Ben 
Davis. From the experience we have had I should 
say that forty degrees would be near the mark for 
Jonathan, and thirty- two to thirty-three degrees for 
Ben Davis. ' ' 

Some varieties are characterized by better keeping 
quality than others. This quality belongs to the 
variet}^, just as much as color, or form, or flavor. In 
an experiment made by the Canadian Experimental 
Farms, in which several varieties of apples were stored 
till May 28th, the order of superiority in keeping qual- 
ity was as shown below. The figures give percentages 



OcllUIIlC . . . . 

Fameuse . . . 


. . 12 


Haas . . . . 


. . 


Gideon . . . . 


. . 


Mcintosh . . . 


. . 


Anisovka . . . 


. . O 



112 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

of apples remaining sound at the end of the experi- 
ment. 

Ben Davis loo 

Wagener 88 

Rawle's Janet ... 82 

Winesap 82 

Walbridge 73 

Lawyer 49 

Pewaukee 29 

But fruits of the same variety differ greatly in 
keeping quality, and so in temperature requirements, 
when grown in different localities, or even from year 
to year when grow^n in the same orchard or vineyard. 
It is a common observation that the weather during 
the ripening period has a profound effect on the keep- 
ing quality of apples or grapes. 

v. GRAPE STORAGE 

Along with the recent remarkable development of 
the grape growing has come an extensive business in 
grape storage. An acquaintance of mine from the 
grape-growing district wrote me the other day (March 
12th), "A neighbor of mine has one hundred tons of 
Catawbas still in storage." The immense production 
of grapes, especially in certain neighborhoods in west- 
ern New York state, and the uncomfortably low prices 
which often rule at picking time, have naturally forced 
growers to use every means of increasing the outlet 
and of extending the season. Storage is one of the 
readiest of these means. 

At the beginning growers tried the cold storage 
companies, but the expense of rented storage was 



FRUIT STORAGE II3 

generally too great for the low price of grapes, and 
this practice never made much headway. The very 
low price of grapes, in fact, made it positively necessary 
that any storage must first of all be comparatively 
inexpensive; and as the cheapest possible system is 
that of home storage in ventilated houses, this method 
came into most common use. 

The system of storage in houses cooled by 
ventilation has thus come to be the one generally 
practiced. It is successful bej^ond what might have 
been hoped in advance of experience. Indeed, the 
system seems to be as effective in keeping grapes as 
it is in keeping apples — that is to say, it is as satis- 
factory as any ordinary practical piece of hard work 
is ever likely to be. 

The houses or storage rooms used for grapes are 
exactly like those used for apples. The houses de- 
scribed in subsequent pages of this chapter and the 
designs given are mostly for apple storage; but this is 
merely because this crop has come under my more 
immediate observation. I washed to write this account 
as far as possible from my actual personal knowledge, 
and I trust such a course will seem justified in the 
eyes of the reader. But any of the houses herein 
described could be adapted to grape storage, usually 
without material alteration. 

Mr. Trevor Moore, of Hammondsport, N. Y., in 
the center of one of the largest grape producing dis- 
tricts in eastern North America, has been very suc- 
cessful in growing and storing grapes. I am indebted 
to him for much valuable information on this subject. 
He has also furnished me with the following descrip- 



114 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

tion of an unusually large and effective storage house 
owned by his neighbor, Mr. J. S. Smith. 

The house is 60 x 60 feet on the floor, with stud- 
ding 16 feet high. These are 2x6, and are papered 
and ceiled on each side and filled with sawdust be- 
tween. The lower and upper floors are made double 
and filled between with sawdust the same as the walls. 
The entire building is placed above ground. There 
are several intakes for cold air on the east and west 
sides just above the floor. These are 3>4 x 2>^ feet 
each, and are closed with tight doors like those used 
on refrigerator cars. There are two warm-air shafts 
from the upper floor through the roof and extending 
8 feet above the comb. In each there is a shelf on 
which a lamp may be set to start the circulation of air 
when necessary. 

This building, which differs in no essential respect 
from the apple storage houses more explicitly described 
in this chapter, and which is a tj^pe of the growers' 
storage houses in the grape districts of western New 
York state, has been entirely successful in its opera- 
tions. Grapes, particularly Catawbas, are held here 
till April or May in perfect condition without the help 
of any artificial refrigeration whatever. 

VI. STORING VEGETABLES 

Many sorts of vegetables are extensively stored 
each year. Thousands of bushels of potatoes are car- 
ried the year round by dealers, and growers often hold 
their stocks for many months. Cabbages, turnips, 
carrots, beets, salsify, parsnips, and all similar vege- 



FRUIT STORAGE II5 

tables are stored in great quantities and with general 
success. 

Vegetables are usually stored in pits or in root 
cellars, such as will be described further on in this 
chapter. Mr. Dean Ferris, market gardener, of Peeks- 
kill, N. Y., who is very successful in keeping vege- 
tables, has given me a description of his methods, 
which I reproduce entire. He says: " We dig carrots 
in October, put them in conical heaps on the surface, 
containing ten to fifteen barrels each, cover with the 
tops, and leave thus until approach of cold weather, 
when they are covered with soil at intervals as the 
weather gets more severe, until the covering is about 
one foot deep. Beets are also stored at the same 
time and in the same manner. Parsnips, salsify, tur- 
nips, rutabagas are not gathered until November, and 
are then treated the same as carrots. Horseradish is 
dug as late in November as it is safe to leave. It is 
put in heaps of not over seven barrels each, and with a 
liberal amount of soil mixed through it at the time 
each basketful is emptied. Horseradish sets require 
more care, and are put in heaps of two or three barrels, 
with as much soil mixed through them as possible. 
Onions are stored in a dry loft where it freezes, and 
those intended for spring market are allowed to freeze 
and are then covered with hay or straw to a depth of 
nearly a foot, and this is not removed until the frost 
is entirely drawn out. Those for winter sales are not 
allowed to freeze nor to grow with too much heat. 
The best temperature, I think, is just above thirty- two 
degrees. Squashes and pumpkins are best kept in a 
dry place where the thermometer will indicate forty to 



Il6 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

fifty degrees. Cabbage we place on the surface in four 
rows, each block containing twenty-five to one hundred 
heads. They are pulled as late in November as possi- 
ble, and must be bright and clean to keep well. They 
are covered as are the carrots, leaving only the roots 
exposed. For use until February, we cut the heads, 
put them in long piles, cover with boards like the roof 
of a house, and then cover with soil as often as neces- 
sary. Celery is stored in trenches in November, the 
trench being about the same depth as the celery. They 
are placed upright as they grow, about five heads 
being in each course, and the trench may be any 
length. Cover with boards, to be followed later with 
soil, like carrots, etc. Our cellar is small, and we keep 
only enough vegetables in it to supply our trade for 
about a month. Potatoes we store in barrels in the 
cellar, keeping them in the dark. The best tem- 
perature for storing most vegetables is about thirty- 
five degrees, and for all roots the surrounding air 
should be quite damp. If I was sure that the 
snow would last all winter, I would place cabbage 
on sod ground, heads down, and cover with snow. 
When this can be done the cabbage comes out in 
spring as nice and green as when covered. We can 
not winter over spinach unless our fields are well 
covered with snow the entire winter. For late 
keeping we sometimes allow parsnips and turnips to 
freeze in the pits, and do not remove until the frost 
is all out, when they come out nearly as nice as 
when stored. I prefer our plan to cellars or root 
houses. I have tried a celery house and gave it 
up." 



FRUIT STORAGK II7 

VII. STORAGK IN PITS 

This is undoubtedly the oldest form of storage for 
fruits and vegetables. It has been in use almost 
everywhere on this continent since the daj^s of the first 
settlements. The Indians and the mound-builders 
used it, but that is really not to be considered a prece- 
dent. The method is better than it looks. At first 
sight it seems slovenly and makeshifty, but in reality 
it gives excellent results at- small expense. Apples 
used frequently to be stored in pits, but the practice 
is waning as applied to fruits. Potatoes, sweet pota- 
toes, turnips, and cabbages are the vegetables most 
commonly stored in this way. 

The usual procedure begins by making a shallow 
excavation, into which the vegetables are put. In 
positions where perfect drainage can not be secured 
the excavation is omitted, and the vegetables or fruits 
are piled directly on the ground. In either case the 
vegetables or fruits are piled up into a high cone- 
shaped figure. Sometimes they are put on carefully 
in concentric layers with rounds of straw, chaff, leaves, 
or sawdust between. This precaution is probably 
worth while, as it secures some ventilation, facilitates 
drainage, and separates the fruits so that decay spreads 
less quickly from one to another. Sometimes a ven- 
tilator is placed in the middle of the heap. This may 
best be a simple box tube five to eight inches square, 
made of four boards nailed together. It should be 
liberally perforated with augur holes throughout its 
length. On top some sort of cover is placed to pre- 
vent rain or snow from falling in. 



Il8 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

Excessive quantities of fruit or vegetables should 
not be piled together. Fifty bushels or less may be 
considered best, though this limit is often greatly ex- 
ceeded. Personal experience under definite conditions 
is the best test. Several sorts of vegetables, as onions 
and cabbages, should not be included in the same pit. 

When the heap of fruits or vegetables is complete 
a covering of straw or leaves is put on. This covering 
may be held in place temporarily by loose boards laid 
on. It is desirable to keep the pile for several days, 
or even for weeks, without additional cover. This 
allows the vegetables to cool down and to evaporate a 
certain amount of water. As the weather grows colder 
some soil is shoveled onto the straw covering. This 
earth cover is put on, a little at a time, from day to 
day, thickening as the cold increases, until, by the 
time the ground freezes for winter, the pit is adequately 
protected against the severest freezes which are to be 
expected. 

The essentials of this method of pit storage are: 
(i) good fruit or vegetables, mature and free from 
decay; (2) careful handling; (3) perfect drainage; 
(4) proper ventilation; (5) progressively supplied 
and adequate protection from cold, but not such a 
covering as will prevent the proper cooling off of the 
contents of the pit. The advantages of the method 
are convenience and economy. In the opinion of the 
author the use of storage pits should be much more 
common than it is. There seems to be a notion that 
it belongs only with frontier conditions, and it has 
generally been practiced only in new countries. 

My friend and former student, Mr. O. M. Morris, 



FRUIT STORAGE 119 

has recently made public his observations of this form 
of storage in the comparatively new country cf Okla- 
homa.* His descriptions and notes are of so much 
general interest, that I will copy them here : 

"Storing potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnips, and beets in 
pits over winter is practiced in Oklahoma and the surround- 
ing states to a considerable extent and with widely varying 
degrees of success. Some men keep their root crops over 
winter in pits, with a loss of not more than one per cent, 
while others lose their entire crop. There are many condi- 
tions that will contribute to the loss, and sometimes it is quite 
difficult to meet all the conditions required for successful 
storage in pits. 

" The condition of the crop to be stored is of prime impor- 
tance. It should be matured, free from decay, cuts, bruises, 
sun-scald, and the effects of frost. Sweet potatoes are very 
susceptible to the effects of frost and other injuries. Potatoes 
should be carefully sorted before they are placed in the pits 
for winter. All tubers that are not in good condition should 
be thrown out. It is best to place the crop in storage as soon 
as dug. The best results are had when the potatoes are kept 
a little moist and not allowed to dry in the open air. 

"The conditions for storage required by any crop are 
about the same, whether these conditions be furnished by 
cellars, storerooms, or pits. The material used in the con- 
struction of pits, however, is of a very different character from 
that used in other storerooms, and is more dependent on its 
character and surroundings for its utility. The pits should be 
so located that they will be partially or entirely shaded from 
the sun. This is almost necessary to maintain a low, even 
temperature. The best position is among trees or on the 
north side of a building. Excessive moisture can be avoided 
by giving good drainage. Sloping land with an open subsoil 
is the best, but any kind of soil is good if it is well drained 
so the water will not seep into the pit. If a desirable location 



* Country Gentleman, 66 : 276. 1901. 



I20 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

for a pit is not at hand, bad drainage may be overcome by 
simply piling the potatoes on the surface of the ground and 
covering. If this is done, the covering will need to be much 
thicker than for pits. It is best to have the potatoes on two 
or three inches of hay or straw, and covered with about the 
same thickness. The covering should protect from frost and 
turn water well. 

"The pits should be round, or long and narrow, so that 
the pile may be in the form of a cone or rick. The potatoes 
should not stand more than three feet deep in the pile. Small 
piles containing from six to ten bushels have nearly always 
given the best results in this locality. The power of the soil 
to absorb noxious gases is depended on as the only source 
of ventilation, and can not act successfully in large piles. 
Sometimes large pits are ventilated to advantage by placing 
a trough or piece of drain tile in the south side of the pit near 
the top. The tile is placed in a horizontal position, with one 
end in the straw that covers the potatoes and the other just 
outside the covering of soil. Another ventilator of the same 
form may be placed just at the surface of the ground. The 
ventilators must be closed and covered during very cold 
weather. 

" A large proportion of the loss of root crops in pits is due 
to the crops being unfit for storage when placed in pits. This 
point can not be too closely watched. If this loop-hole for 
decay is carefully guarded and good drainage secured, the 
remaining requirements can be provided at will. The pro- 
tection from the sun and from frost required will depend 
largely on location." 

It is better, when such a pit is opened, of course, 
to take the entire contents out at once. However, it 
is often feasible to make a small opening in one side, 
and to remove the potatoes or turnips a few at a time. 
I remember well how, when I was a boy, I used to be 
sent to the potato pit day after day to get enough for 
dinner; and no less an authority than Mr. John Bur- 



FRUIT STORAGE 121 

roughs tells his experience of going to the straw-cov- 
ered pile of apples, thrusting his arm in full length, 
and feeling about for the variety of his choice. The 
continual removal of small parcels from day to day, 
however, is more apt to result in loss with apples than 
with potatoes or turnips. 

Hardly any other fruit except the apple will sub- 
mit to this method of storage, and the writer does not 
urge even this as a brilliant success. Among vege- 
tables it finds a wider range of usefulness. Those 
which can be satisfactorily handled in this manner are 
potatoes, turnips, rutabagas, cabbages, sweet potatoes, 
beets, mangels, carrots, parsnips, salsify, and late 
squashes. The order in which these are named is 
approximately^ the order of their amenability to the 
treatment under discussion. 

VIII. STORAGE IN "dugouts" OR '* CAVES " 

The ** dugout," or "cave," which is frequently 
found on western farms, is one step removed from the 
storage pit toward the real storage house. The dug- 
out seems to be a wCvStern institution. In the winter it 
is used for storing fruit and vegetables, and in the sum- 
mer it becomes a refuge from threatening cyclones. I 
have often been waked up in the night to run for one 
of them. I lived in Oklahoma then, and refuge from 
cyclones was much more important than storage for 
apples. S'ill, the "cave" was used for holding various 
perishable products even during the cyclone season; 
and the frightened denizen, precipitately arriving at 
one o'clock in the morning, might find himself but- 
toning his trousers and rubbing his eyes among pans 



122 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

of milk, dishes of butter, and remnants of yesterday's 
dinner. There may be ' ' caves ' ' and dugouts in the 
east, but I have never seen them. Even the word 
''cave" in this connection is, I think, of the west, 
western. 

The dugout is made by digging into a hillside, if 
one is available, and making the walls of earth so far 
as possible. Sometimes the walls are lined with 
boards, and sometimes these lining-boards are run round 
on studding set against the earth walls. Sometimes, 
however, and not seldom, the earth walls are unlined. 
Even the roof is commonly made of earth. Rough 
beams are laid for a ridge pole and rafters; these are 
covered with brush, and the earth is shoveled on. A 
well-built and properly managed ' ' cave ' ' of this sort 
will grow a crop of pigweeds on top. The last desid- 
eratum has been secured when a grass turf is settled 
over the roof, but good luck seldom goes so far as that 
in Oklahoma. 

A ventilator is sometimes put into the conventional 
dugout; sometimes not. For purposes of storage a 
good ventilator is highly important (and I think it 
would be appreciated by the crowded occupants on 
cyclone nights). The dugout iiecessarily has a door 
also, but it seldom or never has a window. 

According to my rather extensive observ^ation of 
these examples of farm buildings, they would be greatly 
improved for storage purposes by the adoption of some 
rational means of ventilation. This might be provided 
by making a good-sized flue on top at the end opposite 
the door, and by making a cold-air inlet in the bottom 
of the door. A sliding window two feet square in the 



FRUIT STORAGE 1 23 

lower part of the door would admit cool air, which, as 
it became warmer, would pass out of the flue at the 
opposite end. 

The usual dugout fails to be an efficient storage 
room for one other reason, and that is that too many 
kinds of things are put into it. I have not infre- 
quently seen potatoes, sweet potatoes, cabbages, onions, 
apples, and butter in the same " cave," or some other 
equally unfriendly mixture. 

The dugout seems to me to be worthy of more 
general adoption on farms where no sort of storage is 
now provided. It seems, further, to be worth taking 
more seriously on the farms where it already exists. I 
believe it has considerable possibilities in the storage 
line if properly managed. In particular it ought to be 
tried on small farms in the eastern states. No fur- 
ther directions or specifications for construction need 
be given, for there is nothing elaborate or difficult in 
the architecture, and each man will naturally make his 
own dugout to suit his particular circumstances. 

IX. MR. T. L. Kinney's house 

The apple storage house of Mr. T. L. Kinney, of 
South Hero, Vermont, is one of the best I have ever 
seen. It may be taken as a type of the private fruit 
storage house. It is well built, and has been entirely 
successful. Apples have been stored in it in con- 
siderable quantities every year since it was built, and 
have kept admirabl}- without exception. 

This house was built in 1888. It is 30x50 feet. 
The main story is 8 feet 4 inches high in the clear ; 



124 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

the basement is 7 feet 4 inches high, and the loft, or 
second story, is 7 feet high. 

The framing construction is simple, and much like 
that commonly used in barn building. 

The large room on the main floor is used primarily 
as a sorting and packing room, but can also be used 




FIG. 39 — MR. KINNEY S APPLE STORAGE HOUSE 



for storage when the basement is filled. It will hold 
1,000 barrels, piling the barrels three tiers high, which 
is as convenient as any way. 

The basement is the main storage room. The 
apples are let down to this from the main floor by an 
elevator. This basement also has an outside door at 
the end opposite the one shown in the perspective 
(Fig. 39). Barrels may thus be unloaded or loaded 



FRUIT STORAGE 1 25 

without being carried through the main floor. This 
basement room has no floor except for some loose 
boards laid down to keep the barrels off the earth. It 
has several small ventilating windows near the top, 
and the door is closed with a heavy double-planked 
door, which is kept shujt after cold weather sets in. 
This room also has a capacity of 1,000 barrels. 

The upper story is used as a storage for empty bar- 
rels, coopers' stock, etc. 

The main door opens upon the first floor. The sill 
is about 3 feet 6 inches from the ground ; but the door 

fj'a, matched, board in(^. 

• BuiLding papan 




Ol/rS/DZ. / ^-fla itd iny pap •fi ] 

'Clapboardt. 

FIG. 40^SECTI0N OF WALL 

is approached by a driveway, shown in the illustra- 
tion (Fig. 39), The windows are of glass and covered 
outside with heavy board shutters. 

The roof is of slate. 

The outside finish consists of three layers, as fol- 
lows: (i) a layer of i-inch matched pine, (2) a layer 
of building paper, (3) a layer of clapboards, well 
painted. 

The inside finish is also of three layers: (i) a layer 
of I -inch matched pine, (2) a layer of building paper, 



126 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

(3) a layer of half-inch matched boarding, heavily 
painted. The painting is important. 

Between the outside cover and the inside finish, 
and between the studding, there is another layer con- 
sisting of lath and plaster. The position of these 
various parts will be better understood by reference 
to Fig. 40. 

This leaves two dead-air spaces in the walls, one 
on each side of the layer of lath and plaster. Mr. 
Kinney says that if he were building again he would 
have the studding wider — say, 2 x 6 — in order to make 
the walls thicker and the dead-air spaces larger. 

In the construction of this house the following bill 
of lumber was used: 



BILL OF LUMBER FOR APPLE HOUSE 

3,500 feet wall boarding 4,000 feet clapboards 



3.000 ' 


' roof boarding 






25 bundles lath 


3,500 ' 


' ceiling (inside) 






223^ squares slate 




7,200 feet floor boards (double floors) 




OUTSIDE 


FINISH 




200 feet 5 in. crown mould 






190 " 


2 in. bed mould 








300 " 


Js X 10 mould for frieze 


and facia 


-Lineal measure 


200 " 


J3 X 7 base and water tables 




200 " 


^ X 12 planers 










4 pieces 
4 " 


/8 X 5 
J8X6 


15 feet 
15 " 


• Corner boards 




8 " 


2X8 


15 " 


■Sills 




16 " 


2X8 


13 " 




56 " 


2x9 


15K" 


• Floor joists 




26 " 


2x9 


30 " 




26 "I 


Kx9 


19 " 


Collar ties to rafters 




100 " 


3x4 


14 " 


•Wall studs 




20 " 


3x4 


12 " 




56 " 


2X8 


21 " 


Rafters 




26 " 
26 " 


2X6 

1x6 


10 " 

8 " 


■ Braces 




16 " 


1x4 


13 " 


Ribbons 




4 " 


2 X 12 


13 " 


Ridge poles 



FRUIT STORAGK 



127 



Responsible lumber dealers in Burlington estimate 
this bill at $443.69. This house actually cost $1,500, 
finished. 

Mr. Kinney has furnished me with the following 
records of temperature observ^ations, made during the 
winter of 1896-7, and showing how well he is able to 
keep the rooms under control : 



Date 



December 28 

29 

January i 

2 

3 

4 

7 

II 

14 

17 

19 

23 



Cellar 


Main Room 


Temperature 


Temperature 


Degrees 


Degrees 


35 


32 


35 


33 


36 


33 


36 


35 


36 


37 


37 


38 


37 


36 


37 


35 


36 


32 


36 


34 


36 


32 


36 


33 



It will be noticed that the temperature fluctuated 
more in the room on the first floor than in the cellar. 
This is due to two causes; — (i) there were more apples 
in the cellar than in the room above, and (2) work 
was going on in the upper room, men were passing 
in and out, and the doors were frequently opened. 

The practice is to cool the hou.se as much as pos- 
sible as picking time approaches. This is done merely 
by attention to ventilation. The windows are kept 
open during the prevalence of cool westerly winds or 
during cold nights, and the house is kept tightly 
closed during hot weather and when the sun shines. 



128 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

The fruit is picked and sorted into barrels if there 
is sufficient help at picking time. The sorting is done 
on a sorting table kept out in the orchard. When, as 
sometimes happens, enough help can not be secured, 
the apples are only partially sorted or not sorted at 
all. They are put into the barrels and are taken to 
the storage house, where sorting follows during rainy 
weather. When the apples are finally carefully 
sorted they are put into barrels without heads, and 
are set away in the storage rooms, where they are left 
undisturbed till shipping time. In case of unusual 
developments of scab or other troubles, especially if 
rotting occurs, the fruit may be resorted during the 
period of storage. At any rate, the final sorting and 
grading is done at the time of shipment. 

X. A CANADIAN FRUIT HOUSE 

One of the most satisfactory storage houses of 
medium size which has yet come under my observa- 
tion is the one owned by Mr. J. M. Fisk, of Abbots- 
ford, Quebec. This is a frame building, 30 x 20 feet 
outside. It is built with 8-foot posts, and double 
boarded with i-inch hemlock. This hemlock siding is 
laid in two thicknesses with the tar paper between. 
The whole is roofed with cedar shingles. 

There is a cellar or basement under the whole 
house, which doubles its capacity. The cellar wall is 
of stone and mortar, 6 feet high and 2 feet thick. At 
the lower end it rises 3 feet above the surface of the 
ground; at the upper end, about i foot. The cellar 
is effectively tile drained, is furnished with a good 
cemented bottom, is lighted by three windows, with 



FRUIf storag:^ 



129 



double sash for winter, and is ventilated by two 4-incli 
tiles, which are closed in very cold weather. The 
floor over the cellar is 2}4 inches thick, i-inch lining 
with tar paper and i}^ -inch plank. The floor above 
the packing room is 2 inches thick, of two layers of 
I -inch boards with tar paper between. 

The packing and sorting room above the cellar is 
lighted by four windows, 4 feet by 2 feet 10 inches. 




FIG. 41 — MR. FISK S FRUIT HOUSE 

The upper sash drops 6 inches for ventilation. There 
are two doors — one to load or unload from wagon with- 
out lifting barrels, the other for general use and to 
unload from dray. 

The loft or upper story is approached by stairway 
at end of packing room. The only approach to cellar 
is near the center of building, by a lift which consists 
of a section of the floor, cut 4 feet by 4 feet 2 inches, 
and supported by four ^-inch rods, one at each corner 
of the platform. These pass through and up to the 
ends of two stout cross-arms, made of white ash, 6 



130 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

feet 6 inches above platform; and on top and center 
of cross-arms is attached a 9-inch pulley. This plat- 
form or open cage runs in grooves of frame of chute, 
which consists of four upright scantlings, 5x2 inches, 
one at each corner, firmly secured to both upper and 
lower floors and bottom of frame in cellar. The plat- 
form being a section of the floor, for loading and 
unloading, is held in position by a brake and lever 
attachment on top of the drum in the loft, and is 
operated from floor of packing room by a i^-inch 
endless rope, which passes twice around the drum in 
the loft, and down through either side of the platform 
to the bottom of the chute, over two small pulleys to 
keep it taut. The drum is 5 feet i yi inches in diam- 
eter, with a 21-inch rim, and is built on the shaft. In 
operating, it winds and unwinds the rope over the 
shaft, the rope passing through the pulley on top of 
cage as it is lowered or raised from the cellar. The 
lowering and raising are facilitated by a 200-pound 
counterweight attached to shaft by a rope and pulley. 
Mr. Fisk says he finds the elevator a great con- 
venience in handling the fruit, as it enables him 
to take advantage, without much labor, of a good 
cellar to store apples and other fruits and vegetables 
during both hot and cold weather. 

The cellar will store 260 barrels of apples, and the 
room above, which is designed for a sorting and pack- 
ing room, may be converted into a storage room at a 
pinch, and will accommodate at least another 260 bar- 
rels. The loft or attic is useful for general storage. 
The cellar is the room in which apples have been kept 
hitherto. L^ast winter apples in barrels in the cellar 



FRUIT STORAGK I3I 

suffered no damage, though the thermometer outside 
went down to 27 degrees below zero for a short time. 
No heat was given, and no artificial refrigeration was 
required. The capacity of the house has not been 
severely taxed thus far, for, though Mr. Fisk had a 
market crop of over 1,300 barrels this year, the 
exceptionally good local market which he enjoys 
absorbed the greater part of it almost direct from 
the orchard. 

The foregoing notes are taken largely from an 
account published by the author in Country Gentle- 
man, 66 : 128, February 14, 1901. Mr. Fisk says that 
he can not give an exact statement of the cost of the 
house, because a good part of the lumber was from 
his own wood lot, and was prepared at odd times. 
The labor of construction was not let out to a carpen- 
ter or contractor either. The house was essentially 
' ' home-made. ' ' Perhaps this is a chief reason why it 
is remarkably well made. Mr. Fisk thinks, however, 
that $400 would be a fair estimate of the cost of 
such a building in his neighborhood. He regards it 
as a good investment, and says his only regret is that 
he did not build sooner and on a larger scale. 

XI. PROFESSOR ALWOOD'S STORAGE HOUSE 

Professor William B. Alwood, horticulturist of the 
Virginia Experiment Station, has described in his Bul- 
letin 58 a storage house which he built at Blacksburg, 
Va., and which involves a principle somewhat different 
from anything met in other fruit storage houses. The 
general construction of the house is also interesting. 
The following account of the house is adapted from 



132 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 



Professor Alwood's bulletin, from which also the illus- 
trations are drawn. 

The essential features involved are : ( i ) a cellar 
excavated into a gently sloping hillside, and carried 
into the bank far enough to place the cellar room 
entirely below the surface of the earth, and yet give 
an opportunity to enter the cellar easily by an inclined 




FIG, 42 — PROFESSOR ALWOOD'S STORAGE HOUSE 

way from the lower side of the slope ; (2) a flue lead- 
ing out from near the center of the floor of the cellar 
room along the bank of the hillside for a considerable 
distance, with sufficient fall to make it act both as a 
drain pipe and a fresh-air flue ; (3) ventilators placed 
at each end of the cellar room, and rising to a sufii- 
cient hight so as to give draft enough to carry off rap- 
idly the air from the cellar room. 

The cellar room will better serve the purpose of 
cold storage if the excavation is carried back into 
the bank so as to make the floor 12 or 15 feet 
below the lowest point of the adjacent hillside. In 



FRUIT STORAGE 1 33 

the case of the cellar built by Professor Alwood, the 
excavation is only 10 feet deep at the deepest point, 
but he now feels satisfied that a greater depth would 
give better results. The principle of a subterranean 
air flue is the unique feature of this cellar. Its use 
is intended to secure a dry, even temperature in the 
cellar by admitting air as desired through this flue. It 
should be at least 6 inches in diameter, and should be 
laid at a depth of 8 or 9 feet for a distance of about 
500 feet. 

It is not necessary that this flue should lie in a 
straight line, but any departure from a straight line 
should be a gradual curve, so as to permit an unob- 
structed flow of air into the cellar. Situated at this 
depth and having a length approximately as stated 
above, the air flowing into the cellar through this flue 
will be in summer reduced, and in winter raised, to the 
temperature of the soil at the depth stated, which will 
approximate somewhere between 50° and 55° Fahren- 
heit during the entire year. The above statement is 
based on the observed temperature of perennial springs 
in the vicinity of Blacksburg, Va. 

From the foregoing it follows that if the air in the 
cellar becomes warmer than the air in the underground 
flue, it will rise through the ventilating flues, and the 
colder air will flow in from the supply flue as desired. 
The temperature of the cellar room can thus be approxi- 
mately controlled down to at least the neighborhood 
of 55° to 60° Fahrenheit. 

The construction of the cellar is shown somewhat 
in detail in the drawings. These figures serve to 
bring out the essential ideas and plan of the structure 



134 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

sufficiently to enable any mechanic to carry them out 
on a larger or smaller scale to suit the needs of the 
builder. 

Fig. 42 is a longitudinal section through the cellar 
room, and shows also a side elevation of the storeroom 
above. The two ventilators, a a, rise through the 
storeroom and are 6 inches in diameter by 15 feet 
long, thus insuring good draft. The air flue, b, enters 
under the foundation and discharges fresh air into the 
cellar room near the center. This flue is 6 inches in 
diameter, and, theoretically, should be extended far 
enough along the hillside to admit of tempering the air 
to the temperature of the surrounding earth while 
passing through it. The cellar under consideration 
has an air flue only 150 feet long, and it has proved 
impossible to cool the air in the cellar room below 60° 
with an outside temperature of 70°. 

The dotted line, h, shows the surface of the ground 
on the hillside, and the line / shows the level of the 
entry-way into the cellar. The entry-way should 
preferably be on the north side, and should be closed 
in by a vestibule, so as to protect the cellar-way from 
storm, and to prevent influence of outside temperature 
on the atmosphere in the cellar. 

The roof of the vestibule is shown at dy and one side 
of the entry walls at e. The floor of the cellar, //, 
pitches slightly to the mouth of the air flue, b. The 
cellar floor is made of broken stone and cement, and 
successfully checks the rise of ground water. The 
bins, or storage shelves, c c, etc. , are of 2 x 4 scant- 
ling and I -inch oak boards. The letters k k, at lower 
ends of ventilating flues, indicate the position of sliding 



FRUIT STORAGE 



135 



dampers, by means of which the flow of air from the 
cellar is controlled. With the 150-foot flue used in 
this cellar it has been found that when the mercury 
remains below 20° for any length of time, the cellar 
will take a temperature below freezing unless the ven- 
tilators are closed. 

Fig. 43 shows the ground plan of the cellar. The 
letters so far as used always indicate the same part of 
the structure in the section. The walls are constructed 
of stone, which is unquestionably the proper material. 




mM^fM^Mm'mM'"i 'F i 



\4 \\a\ \ i\ :j~hn: 



8 



rtrfte^ 



wm'i 



FIG. 43 — CELLAR PLAN OF HOUSE SHOWN IN FIG. 42 

In the Virginia building, which was constructed to 
test the practicability of an idea new to this class of 
structures, expense was avoided so far as possible, and 
the walls were built of wood. The framing of the 
walls is constructed of 2 x 4 scantling, framed into 
sills laid in broken stone and cement. The corner 
posts are 4x4 scantling. This frame is covered out- 
side by a double sheathing of inch oak plank. The 
first course was put on diagonally and covered with 
strong builder's paper, and over this a perpendicular 
course of sheathing was put on. The whole structure 
was then literally soaked with crude petroleum, and 
the earth rammed in tight around the cellar story and 



136 FRUIT HARVKSTING, STORING, MARKETING 

banked up so as to carry surface water away from the 
walls. Inside the walls were covered with inch oak 
boards, and the bins constructed as indicated in the 
drawings. 

The entry-way to the cellar is wide enough to ad- 
mit of backing a horse-cart or wagon down into the 
cellar so as to unload directly from it. This is a mat- 
ter of much convenience to the workmen. The width 
of the cellar floor will allow of a row of barrels being 
placed in front of the bins and yet admit the vehicle. 

With stone or brick walls the bins would need to 
be separated from the outer wall by putting up an 
inner wall of boards nailed to studding, thus giving 
an air space between the bins and the outer wall. 

A series of observations on the range of tempera- 
ture in the cellar was made during November, Decem- 
ber, January, and part of February, 1894, ^^^ the 
results are summarized below. The ventilator and the 
air flue were all left open from November ist to De- 
cember loth. The outside air temperature was 28° 
on the morning of November ist, and the cellar showed 
a temperature of 46°. As the month progressed a 
period of warm weather set in, without a drop to freez- 
ing, from the 7th until the 24th of the month. During 
this time the temperature often registered above 60° 
in the shade, with maximum readings considerably 
higher. The cellar temperature varied just 12° for 
the entire month, reaching 58° on two occasions, but 
closing the month at 46°, with outside temperature 
at 34°. 

During December the cellar temperature was re- 
duced quite steadily from 45° to 38°, the daily varia- 



FRUIT STORAGE 137 

tions being at most 2°. Outside temperature varied 
considerably, but the range was between 15° and 46°. 
A number of observations were made on the working 
of the supply flue and the ventilators. The tests 
made showed that air passed through the 150- foot 
supply flue in thirty to forty seconds, and the ven- 
tilators could be depended upon at all times to keep 
up a movement of air in the cellar so as to draw in a 
fresh supply. In fact, during the coldest w^eather the 
ventilators were frequently closed to prevent the too 
rapid lowering of the temperature in the cellar. The 
tests showed that this flue could not be depended on 
to raise the air to a proper temperature when the mer- 
cury outside was at 15° or lower. The air was raised 
about 20°, the amount varying with conditions. 

During January further experiments showed that 
the temperature of the cellar could be easily reduced 
to 35° when the outside air was at 15° to 20°. How- 
ever, the building proved to be lacking in two essen- 
tials: (i) it was not deep enough in the earth, and (2) 
the floor between it and the tool room above was not 
properly laid. This floor is double, of half -inch stuff. 
It is now thought that the cellar room should also 
be heavily ceiled. 

The total range of temperature in the cellar during 
January was 35° to 42°. This result, however, was 
secured by carefully watching the conditions. An 
equally good result can not be secured, when outside 
temperatures are fluctuating, without constant atten- 
tion. 

Professor Alwood thinks that, with the improve- 
ments which have been suggested by experience, the 



138 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

building would become very satisfactory. In the 
opinon of the present writer the interesting and unique 
principle of an underground flue for tempering the 
air would be applicable to the storage of certain veg- 
etables, such as sweet potatoes, and others requiring a 
comparatively high temperature. The plan seems to 
be practicable for securing even temperatures, but 
hardly adapted to give the low temperatures required 
in apple storage. If the temperature of the soil at 
considerable depths is about 50°, as observed from 
living springs by Professor Alwood, the buried flue 
ought to give, theoretically, an even temperature 
approximately the same. This is much too warm for 
apples and many other fruits. Of course such an 
underground flue may be used or kept closed, accord- 
ing as the temperature of the storage room is higher 
or lower than the observed subterranean temperature. 
It might, therefore, prove a convenience with any 
house, and would in no way interfere with the more 
drastic methods of lowering the temperature of the 
storage room, which the manager might find it desira- 
ble to adopt at certain times. 

XII. A NOVA SCOTIA HOUSE 

The following description of a Nova Scotia apple 
storage house is furnished me by my friend, Professor 
F. C. Sears, director of the horticultural school at Wolf- 
ville. He says that apple warehouses are each year 
becoming more common in the great apple district of 
Nova Scotia, the Annapolis valley. They are built 
either by large speculators who deal extensively in 
apples, by English commission firms for the accommo- 



FRUIT STORAGE 



139 



dation of their patrons, or by cooperative associations 
of the growers themselves, and are used either for the 
permanent storage of fruit or for temporary storing of 
apples as they are brought from the farm, and until 
they can be forwarded by rail to Halifax, and there 
loaded on steamers for England. 

The illustration shows one of several which were 
built in 1899 under the direction of Mr. C. R. H. 
Starr, agent of Northard & I^owe, of London. It is 







FIG. 44 — A NOVA SCOTIA HOUSE 

85 feet long by 20 feet wide, and has a capacity of 
about 4,000 barrels, with loading accommodations for 
three cars at one time along the side. 

The building rests on a stone and brick cellar wall 
8 feet deep, and the superstructure has walls 10 feet 
high. The walls are covered, on the outside of the 
studding, with two courses of inch boards, with build- 
ing paper between, and this again is covered with 
paper, with shingles on the outside. Inside the 
walls are first lathed and plastered with selenite 
and lime mortar. Then inch strapping is nailed 



140 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

against the studding, and the whole is covered with 
I -inch tongued and grooved spruce sheathing. The 
ceiling is covered with the same kind of sheathing, 
with building paper laid lengthwise of the joists 
between them and the sheathing. The upper floor is 
also laid double, with paper between, thus protecting 
the body of the building from frost from above. 

The windows and door frames are made with 
double casings buried in the covering in such a man- 



r~ 


^corm S„u>,,r 


/— 1 -"-'" 


\ 




£^ac.. \ 


C.,.„; 1 ,.^c.B.ar^ 


\ 


/ 


aa>n 




E 


Imch JSoarel \ 


ZineH J/>ac». 


•> 


Jiud 


^.nchSjoac*. 


3tu<t 
114- 




{ 


J=jA 










J 
% 






Zath ./=taiter 


i 


»—- 


i!-:\ U.C.^oce IX^i 




llnch rc,,^u, r fz-oou. M 


.OM,.^ 






f 


a lino 1 








4- 




^i.. 





FIG. 45 — SECTION THROUGH WALL AND WINDOW 



ner as to preclude the possibility of draft or frost 
(see Fig. 45). The windows have double sashes, and 
are provided with storm shutters for protection against 
heat as well as cold. The doors are also double, one 
swinging outward and the other inward, and fitting 
closely into beveled jambs. These doors are built on 
2-inch pine frames, with i-inch tongue and grooved 
sheathing on each side of frame, and paper between. 

There are three hatchways in the lower floor, pro- 
vided with gratings, or tight hatches, if required. 
The ventilators extend from the ceiling to the roof, 
and are provided with slides to close when necessary. 
The cellar has also double windows and 4-inch venti- 
lator tubes in the sides. Both the cellar and the main 



FRUIT STORAGE 



141 



floor of the building are proof against frost in the 
coldest weather, and altogether this warehouse is 
admirably adapted to the purpose for which it was 
built, and has proved invaluable to shippers. 

XIII. MR. T. B. WILSON'S HOUSE 

The house herewith illustrated and described is the 
property of Mr. T. B. Wilson, of Hall's Corners, 
Ontario County, N. Y. The following details regard- 







FIG. 46 — MR. T. B. WILSON'S HOUSE 



ing the construction and operation of the house are 
taken from an account published by Mr. S. A. Beach 
(Rural New Yorker, September i, 1897). 

The fruit is received by the door which opens on 
the first floor at the front of the building at a con- 
venient hight for unloading apples from wagons. The 
rear door of the same floor opens above the railroad 
siding at a hight of about 13 feet. From this door 
the barrels are run over a slide directly into the car. 
When barrels that are in the cellar are to be shipped 



142 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

they are hoisted to the first floor by horse power, and 
then loaded into the car from the rear door. 

The dimensions of the building are 40x60 feet, 
outside measurement. The building consists of a cel- 
lar II feet high in the clear — the first story of the 
same hight — and the attic, which is used for storing 
empty barrels, wool, etc. The combined capacity of 
the cellar and first floor is 7,000 pony barrels or 6,500 
standard barrels. The cellar walls are two feet thick, 
made of small stones imbedded in grout. Five venti- 
lators open into the cellar floor — one in the center and 
one in each quarter of the floor. From these one- foot 
pipes lead outside. The illustration (Fig. 46) shows 
four ventilators, which open outside the building near 
the ground, with doors by which the outside opening 
may be closed at will. The cellar has an earth floor 
and a ceiling of inch hemlock stuff". 

The walls of the first story are 20 inches thick, 
made of small stones imbedded in grout. The inside 
of the wall is formed by a 2x4 studding set against 
the outer wall and covered with matched hemlock. 
The air space opens into the cellar below and into the 
attic above, and may be closed by a shutter in the 
attic, so that a current of cold air from the cellar may 
be sent through the air spaces whenever it is desirable 
to do so. Over the hemlock ceiling of the cellar is laid 
about three-fourths of an inch of mortar between the 
sleepers. The floor of the first story laid on these 
sleepers is of two-inch matched pine. The ceiling is 
rough hemlock. Above this the space between the 
joists is filled solid with sawdust, over which are laid 
the inch hemlock boards which form the attic floor. 



FRUIT STORAGK 143 

The cellar has but one outside door, which is in the 
middle of the rear side. On either side of this door 
are two windows, the only ones which ^open into the 
cellar. In addition to the front and rear windows 
already mentioned, the first floor has three windows 
opening to the rear — one over the door and two in 
front, one on each side of the door. 

The double doors are ceiled outside and inside, 
leaving a 2 -inch air space in the middle. Between the 
outer and inner doors is a 12-inch air space. The 
windows are of single sash, protected by simple board 
shutters outside. The inside shutters are about 6 
inches thick, with 3-inch air space in the middle. 
The sloping jambs narrow outward. The first story is 
ventilated by lox 12 inch openings. These open into 
box flues which pass through the attic to the cupolas 
on the roof. These tubes are opened or closed by 
slides. Air is admitted through the windows and 
doors. The floor of the first story slopes gradually to 
the rear, so that barrels of fruit may be readily moved 
to the rear door, where they are easily loaded into the 
car. 

Concerning the use of the building, Mr. Beach 
says further : ' ' Shipments are made from here at any 
time during the winter by using refrigerator cars. It 
has never been necessary to build a fire in the building 
to keep the fruit from freezing. The temperature has 
been controlled by strict attention to the ventilation. 
Russets have been held here in good condition till May 
before being shipped." 

Mr. Wilson has frequently shipped apples to 
Europe from this building by the carload. He has 



144 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

also rented storage to others at a fixed rate by the 
barrel. 

XIV. MR*S. L. E. ALLEN'S STORAGE HOUSE 

The storage house of Mrs. ly. E. Allen, at South 
Hero, Vt., is interesting not only as being an entirely 
successful building of its kind, but also as exemplify- 
ing in its construction certain practical conditions 
which have frequently to be met. It often occurs that 
the fruit farmer does not care to build a fruit storage 
house out and out, bran new, from the ground up. 
He has some other building on hand which he can 
more conveniently make over, or some beginning from 
which he can enlarge to suit his needs. These were 
the circumstances which governed the planning of the 
house under consideration. 

This house was built on a foundation already made, 
where another structure had stood, and the fruit room 
above the foundation was also built against another 
building already standing on one side. These condi- 
tions, of course, lowered the cost of construction con- 
siderably, and this must be remembered in examining 
the figures given below. Nevertheless, these condi- 
tions of construction occur so often that the case is 
fairly typical, and may be properly given at its face 
value. 

The house consists of two rooms, the lower one 
being a basement with stone sides. This basement 
opens out on the level of the ground at one end, and 
is covered with earth to the top of the wall at the 
other end. The basement story is 7 feet 2 inches 
high inside, and the room above is 7 feet 7^ inches 



FRUIT STORAGE 



45 



high. Each room is 43 feet 9 inches long by 17 feet 2 
inches wide. 

The outside of the upper story was first boarded 
on the studding, then covered with tar paper, and 
clapboarded on top of this. Between the studding it 
was lathed and plastered. Inside it was ceiled up 
with matched spruce, and a wainscoating of hard pine 




FIG. 47 — MRS. Allen's apple house 

was run round. The main floor is double thick, with 
tar paper between the layers. The basement has no 
floor, but loose boards are laid down and the barrels 
are rolled onto these. The roof is covered with gal- 
vanized steel. 

The upper room was originally intended only as a 
sorting room, the lower story being expected to hold 
all the fruit in storage. As a matter of fact, however, 
the upper room has several times been held full of 



146 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORINCx, MARKETING 

apples for several months at a time, with excellent 
success. A small stove is provided, and a trifling fire 
is kept on very cold days, just to take the chill off the 
air. A temperature of about 26° is the lowest ever 
registered during the storage season. The tempera- 
ture generally maintained is 32° to 35°. 

The following bill of materials and labor shows 
approximately the cost of this house : 

1. 000 feet Joists, 2 X 8 $14.00 

600 " Studding, 2x4 8.40 

5,000 " Ceiling, matched spruce .... 60.00 

1,000 " Flooring, hard 18.00 

500 " Sills, 6x6 6.00 

1,000 " Floor Covering 6.00 

Clapboards 19.60 

10 Windows iS^oo 

10 Window-frames 10.00 

Paper 10.00 

Lath and plaster 12.00 

Roofing, galvanized steel .... 24.00 

Labor 125.00 

Incidentals, nails, etc 30.00 

Total $358.00 

XV. NOTES ON VARIOUS STORAGE HOUSES 

This list of descriptions of storage houses with 
records of results might be continued to considerable 
length. It seems best, however, to draw it to a close 
with sundry notes on various storage houses in differ- 
ent parts of the coimtry. Each one of these houses 
has been a separate problem, and each man has 
worked the questions out for himself. All are there- 
fore interesting, and more or ICvSS instructive. 



FRUIT STORAGE 147 

A Colorado hotise.— Hon. W. S. Coburn, of Hotch- 
kiss, Col., has a very successful house which is known 
all over the state. It is 36 x 60 feet, and one and a 
half vStories high. It is built double, with two 8 -inch 
concrete walls having a 4- inch dead-airspace between. 
The lower floor is of cement with a board covering. 
The boards are laid three-quarters of an inch apart. 
The upper floor is carried by 2 x 8 joists. Strips are 
nailed on the lower edges of these, and inch boards 
are sawed and furred in between the joists, being 
nailed to the strips just mentioned. These furrings 
are then covered with heavy felt paper, and the 
spaces between the joists filled to the top with con- 
crete. Another floor is laid on top of this, making 
the whole construction uncommonly sound and tight. 
There are ventilators at each end of the building to 
admit air from the outside. The apples are kept in 
bins, which seems to be customary in the western 
states. The bins have successive slat floors placed 
every 30 inches, one above another, and the fruit is 
spread on these. Over each bin there is a ventilator, 
which, in drawing off warm air, creates a draft through 
the apples in the bins. The temperature is controlled 
entirely by ventilators. Such control has been found 
entirely practicable and satisfactory. 

More Colorado experience. — Another Colorado apple 
grower who has had much gratifying experience in 
storing fruit, particularly apples, is J. S. McClelland, 
of Fort Collins. His storage house is 70 feet long, 
varying in width from 12 to 18 feet, and holding about 
1,500 barrels. This part is mostly under ground, and 



148 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

forms the chief storage. At one end there is a two- 
story frame packing house, 24x24 feet, the lower 
floor of which is also sometimes used for storage. 
The sides of the main storage room are of earth, and 
so are the floor and the roof. The apples are stored in 
tiers in bins, however, in the same manner employed 
by Mr. Coburn and described above. The tempera- 
ture is controlled entirely by ventilation, and Mr. 
McClelland tells me that he has successfully carried 
apples in this room till May. Mr. McClelland, it 
should be said, makes a specialty of Ben Davis, which 
he grows in great perfection, so that his stock is the 
very best for storage. 

A71 Ontario house. — Brooks Brothers, of Courtice, 
Ontario, have a well-built and exemplary storage 
house, used almost altogether for apples. The build- 
ing is at Oshawa Junction, and is built beside the rail- 
road tracks conveniently for shipping. It has a 
capacity of 10,000 barrels. It is two stories high, 
built of stone below and woodwork above. The floors 
are of cedar plank. The temperature is controlled 
entirely by ventilation, there being neither artificial 
refrigeration nor heat applied. It has been successful. 

A71 improvisation. — The house used by Mr. H. H. 
Hill, of Isle La Motte, Vt., for storing apples is of 
general interest from the fact that it was improvised 
from materials on hand. Mr. Hill made use of an 
old stone woodshed attached to the hou.se, after the 
manner common in rural New England. The stone 
walls are 2 feet thick. The storage room proper is 
about 26x32 feet in size, and high enough. Planks 



FRUIT STORAGE 



49 



were laid on the ground for the barrels to rest on. 
The apples are put into barrels as fast as picked 
and are taken directly to the storage room. Here the 
barrels are piled up one above another, standing on 
end and unheaded. They are allowed to remain undis- 
turbed in this position till shipping time, when the 







i^vr.. 



k^^: 







FIG. 48 — WOODSHED CONVERTED INTO STORAGE HOUSl:: 

fruit is resorted, packed, headed, marked, and sent to 
market. The house has been only fairly satisfactory, 
and Mr. Hill thinks he could improve it considerably 
by making some alterations in the light of his several 
years' experience. 

A small home storage house. — A small storage 
house, holding fruit for home use only, is owned and 
operated by Mr. Joe A. Burton, of Orleans, Ind. 
This house holds 115 barrels of apples when quite full. 



150 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

It is 11X12 feet in size on the floor. It is built of 
brick with double walls, four inches apart, and filled 
with sawdust between. The ground floor is 15 inches 
below the surface of the ground, but the soil is banked 
up against the outside walls to some hight for pro- 
tection. The room is 8 feet high inside. The ceiling 
is covered above with 15 inches of sawdust. The 
floor is grouted and cemented and the walls are plas- 
tered. This house has proven unusually successful 
for holding apples; but much of the good result is 
doubtless due to the manner of growing and handling 
the fruit. Mr. Burton writes me on this matter as 
follows: " Our success in keeping apples is due more 
to the handling than to the house ; in fact, our apples 
are kept in the barn and outhouses till cold weather 
drives them into the cellar. Did we barrel them as 
you state in your bulletin, only partially assorted, we 
would expect to lose most of them, as do our neigh- 
bors. Every apple showing any sign of decay is 
rejected. We leave them on the tree as long as pos- 
sible, not to have too much loss by falling. They can 
pass the hot spells much more successsully on the trees 
than in the barrels. It is the hot weather after gath- 
ering, hastening the ripening, that causes mOvSt of the 
loss we sustain. We hardly know such a thing as 
winter rot. A cellar under a house is too warm to 
keep apples well in our climate. Our key to success 
is: Assort severely, and keep as cool as possible not to 
freeze. ' ' 

JVesl Virginia experience. — Certain counties of 
West Virginia produce considerable quantities of 



FRUIT STORAGE 



151 



apples, and in these neighborhoods storage houses 
have been found very useful. The following notes of 
conditions and experience in West Virginia are made 
chiefly from information furnished by Professors L. C. 
Corbett and K. C. Davis. 

There are in Hancock County six or seven houses 
varying in capacity from 2,500 barrels up to 35,000. 
These houses are variously constructed of wood. 




FIG. 49- 



■WEST VIRGINIA APPLE HOUSE 



brick, and stone — most of them, how^ever, of stone. 
They are usually placed on sloping land and built in 
the fashion of a bank barn, with a basement story 
and a story above ground. The basement story is 
frequently covered with soil on two or three sides, 
making a sort of a cellar. Some of these buildings 
are used merely as w^arehouses, while others are pro- 
vided with an ice chamber, alw^ays on the second or 
third story. Where ice is used a metallic floor is pro- 
vided for the ice chamber. The storeroom, besides 
having the stone wall, usually 18 to 24 inches thick, is 



152 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

also provided with a lining constructed of studding, 
building paper, and matched flooring. This makes a 
dead-air space 2 to 4 inches wide, according to the 
way the studding is placed between the wood and 
stone walls. A cement floor, or compacted earth floor, 
is provided in the basement room, and on top of this 
wooden trestles or a tight board floor is placed. If 
the floor be of compacted earth, wooden trestles are 
usually preferred, while in one of the best houses a 
tight board floor is used. The second story floor is 
usually built of 2 x 4 stuff, placed on edge, wath an 
air space about an inch wide between each of the 
2x4's. This provides for a complete circulation of 
air between the two stories. The fruit is usually 
packed tightly in barrels, without sorting, as it is 
taken from the trees. These are carried directly to 
the storerooms and packed away with the barrels on 
the side, as a rule, 1x6 pieces being used as a guide- 
way between each tier of barrels. In this fashion the 
whole chamber is stored full of barrels from floor to 
ceiling. The fruit is not disturbed after being placed 
in the wareroom until it is packed out for shipment. 
Then it is graded and each barrel labeled according to 
the grade to which it belongs. Where ice is used the 
houses are iced before beginning to store the crop, so 
as to have the storerooms cooled as the barrels are 
placed in permanent quarters. The growers seem to 
have an idea that this is a very essential part of the 
management of the house. AftCx" getting the tem- 
perature once reduced it is maintained, as nearly 
constant as possible, in the neighborhood of 34° 
to 38°. 



FRUIT STORAGE 



153 



Mr. Arthur H. HiW s house. — The apple house of 
Mr. Arthur H. Hill, Isle La Motte, Vt., herewith 
illustrated, is an admirable example of what may be 
done without going to the expense of constructing a 
complete storage plant. The house was built merely 
for a packing shed, and this is still its chief use. It 
has, nevertheless, served as a storage house at a pinch, 
and its success in that line is worth noting. Mr. Hill 




FIG. 50 — CHEAPER HOUSE FOR TEMPORARY STORAGE 

tells me that he has held apples successfully till the 
middle of February, and through a temperature of 18° 
below zero, by the aid of a small wood stove in which 
an occasional fire was kindled. 

The walls of this house are not constructed with a 
view to keeping out the cold, being only one thickness 
of novelty siding. The floor below is of sand, on 
which boards are distributed thickly enough to keep 
the barrels clean. The second floor is of matched 
spruce, and is approached by a stairway in one corner. 



FRUIT STORAGE 155 

Large double door openings in each end — large enough 
to admit a team and wagon — are protected only by 
sliding doors of single thickness. There are four two- 
sash windows on either side. 

The house is 26 x 65 feet, wath 15-foot studs and 
a ' ' quarter pitch ' ' shingled roof. The total cost was 
about $400. 

Only the lower story has ever been used for stor- 
age. This will hold something over one thousand 
barrels of apples when full. The second story is used 
as a cooper shop, and for the storage of barrels, spray- 
ing apparatus, etc. 

XVI. DESIGN FOR SIMPLE LEAN-TO STORAGE 

This design is intended to meet the requirements 
of the grower who has the smallest possible quantity 
of fruit to store. It w411 accommodate one hundred 
barrels of apples when full, but of course can be used 
equally as well for grapes, plums, or pears. It is to 
be constructed in the simplest and cheapest possible 
manner consistent with efficiency. It is to be built 
as a lean-to on the north side of some barn or granary 
already standing. 

The dimensions inside are as follows: Length, 20 
feet; breadth, 10 feet; hight, 8 feet. The rafters may 
be of 2 X 4 stuff. The roof should be shingled on top 
of two layers of inch boards, with building paper be- 
tween. On the under side of the rafters there should 
also be a ceiling of well-matched lumber, with a layer 
of building paper inside. The studs may also be of 
2x4. Outside they should have a layer of inch pine 
boards carefully laid, a double coating of building 



156 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

paper, and a layer of novelty siding. Inside they 
should be covered with another layer of inch boarding, 
a layer, or, better, two, of building paper, and finally a 




FIG. 52 — LEAN-TO STORAGE HOUSE — END VIEW 

good course of ceiling well laid and heavily painted. 
The sill should consist of one piece of 2 x 4 and one 
of 2 X 6 spiked together, L shaped, making a box sill. 
The joists should be 2 x 6. 

There should be one door and no windows. In- 



FRUIT STORAGE 1 57 

Stead of windows there should be ventilators along the 
side, put in just above the level of the floor, as show^n 
in the end elevation in the figure. These can be lifted 
from the outside without disturbing the house, and 
cold air admitted as required. A ventilator for carry- 
ing off the warm air should be placed near the middle 
of the room, and may properly be made high enough 
above the roof to be somewhat independent of the 
building against which the lean-to storage house is 
constructed. 

It may or may not be convenient to have the floor 
of the storage room 2^ to 3 feet above the ground, so 
that barrels may be easily handled in and out of a 
wagon. In case the high floor is preferred, a small 
unloading platform will be found a great convenience. 

This house can be built for about $75. On some 
farms where material can be had cheaply, and where 
the work can be done without hiring, it will not cost 
more than $50. It ought to cost not more than j^ioo 
anywhere. 

XVII. DESIGN FOR COMMODIOUS HII,I,SIDE STORAGE 

The ordinary way of building a .storeroom into a 
hillside is to place the house lengthwise into the hill 
instead of lengthwise along the hill. Such a .storage 
room is usually small, and the construction is properly 
a ** dugout," or "cave," .such as has already been 
described in this chapter. A more commodious stor- 
age cellar may be made by running the room the other 
way, longitudinally along the hill-slope. This is the 
way in which the large and w^ell-known storage house 
of the Olden Fruit Company is constructed. 



158 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

The storage house of the Olden Fruit Company, 
of Olden, Mo., is a pioneer in its way, and its suc- 
cess has been gratifying, on the whole. The manager 
writes me that they have held apples in good con- 
dition till the first of March — this in Missouri. The 
house is 192 x 46 x 12 feet inside, and holds about 




FIG. 53 — CROSS SECTION OF HILLSIDE STORAGE 

14,000 barrels of apples. The house is not roofed 
with earth, but the soil which was taken out of the 
excavation was used to bank up on the lower side as 
high as the eaves. The roof is of boards battened. 
It has a pitch of forty-five degrees. 

The house here suggested and shown in section. 
Fig. 53, is considerably smaller, being only 6 feet 
high and 12 feet wide inside. These dimensions, of 



FRUIT STORAGE 



59 



course, may be varied to any extent and in any direc- 
tion to suit the convenience of the builder. It may be 
made of an}^ required length. 

The best method of construction would be to set 
posts along the sides in the place of studs. These 
should be of cedar, oak, catalpa, or other durable 
wood, and should be long enough that they ma}^ 
be inserted 2 or 2^ feet into post-holes at the bottom. 
They should be thoroughly tamped in and anchored 




FIG. 54 — ENTRANCE TO HILLSIDE STORAGK 

with stone. Heavy plates may be spiked to the tops 
of these posts. These plates should not be less than 
3x8 inches — preferably more. Or box plates may 
be used, made of two pieces of 3 x 8 or 2 x 8 spiked 
together. Heavy joists will also be required, which 
should be spiked to the plates. If the stud-posts are 
numerous enough and properly placed, the joists can 
be spiked directly to them, which will be still better. 
If the earth roof is to be used, as it may properly be, 
the joists should be covered on top with a number of 



l6o FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

loose boards, then with hght poles, then with some 
brush, and finally the earth may be drawn on with a 
scraper. The roof should be ceiled on the inside, 
preferably with matched i-inch lumber. This ceiling 
may be nailed directly to the stud-posts on the sides 
and to the joists overhead. It will be worth while, if 
opportunity offers, to fill in behind and above the 
ceiling with sawdust. A floor will not be required ; 
but some loose planks should be laid on the ground 
for the barrels to rest on. 

One or more ventilators should be put in at the 
back of the room, as shown in the figure, extending 
up to the ground above. These will carry off the 
warm air when required. They should be arranged 
so as to be closed whenever desired. One ventilating 
shaft 1 6 inches square inside should be provided for 
each 12 feet in length of the storage room. On the 
opposite side of the storage room, and at the bottom, 
there should be a number of drains provided. These 
should be made of tile or similar materials. These 
drains should be laid in such a way as to serve also as 
inlets for cool air when required. They will thus act 
in conjunction with the warm-air outlets provided 
above and at the opposite side of the room. They 
should, like the warm-air drafts, be arranged so as to 
be closed and opened at will. Perhaps the best size 
for these combined drains and ventilators is six inches; 
that is, they will be of six-inch tile. There should be 
one such ventilator drain for every six feet in length 
of the house, or if there is apt to be much seepage 
water to be carried off, the drains .should be larger or 
more numerous. 



FRUIT STORAGE l6l 

The door to this house will naturally be made in the 
side, and may be located either at one end or in the 
middle, as may best suit the builder. A proper vestibule 
should be built about it, or two doors should be used, the 
one to protect the other. Windows may be introduced 
on the down-hill side of the room if thought necessary, 
but they w^ould probably be more trouble than use. 

The cost of such a house would vary immensely 
according to the manner in which it were built. The 

s s 



FIG. 55 — SIDE ELEVATION OF STORAGE HOUSE 

chief expense would be for labor ; and this is often an 
item of small expense on the farm. If all the labor 
had to be hired the expense would naturally be more 
serious. It is impossible, however, to make any esti- 
mate of the cost here. 

XVIII. DESIGN FOR A THOUSAND-BARREL 
STORAGE HOUSE 

The design herewith given was contributed by the 
author to Country Gentlemen, December 7, 1899, and 
is here reproduced with new illustrations. The plan 
is intended to provide an apple storage house with a 



1 62 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 



Si'-O". 



I 

I 

I 

I 

I 

I 



Storage ?ioom. 

36X3^.' 



Sorting y PacHing Hoom. ? 
/o'xz&'. \ 



flae/orTTi. 



FIG. 56 — PLAN OY STORAGE HOUSE 

capacity of 1,000 barrels, to be built in one story on 
level ground. 

The main storage room of this house is 36x38 
feet, and will hold just about 1,000 apple barrels when 
full. They will then be piled up three tiers high, 
which is not an inconvenient arrangement. Apple 
growers have generally found it best to store apples in 



FRUIT STORAGE 



163 



barrels. The house also has a sorting and packing 
room 10x36 feet, all of which space will be needed. 
This packing room stands next to the outside door, 
and the only entrance to the storage room is through 
this sorting room. This protects the storage room 
from outside temperatures, and permits work to go on. 
either bringing in fruit or taking it out, without dis- 
turbing seriously the atmosphere in the storage room. 




FIG. 57 — SECTION OF STORAGE HOUSE 

The space overhead will be needed for storing barrel 
stock, etc. 

The front (double sliding) door should be 6 feet 
wide, and the two inside doors should be 3 feet 6 
inches. It will be an advantage to have two inside 
doors, arranged as show^n in the plan. If a single 
door is used between the two rooms and is put in the 
middle of the partition, it will admit more drafts of 
outside air to the storage room, and will not be so 
convenient in handling barrels from one room to 
the other. 

No ice or artificial refrigeration is needed in this 



164 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

house — at least, not for any place north of Virginia. 
The temperature can be easily controlled by the 
windows and the ventilators shown in the various 
elevations. With the windows placed high up on the 
sides, as shown in the elevation, Fig. 55, it will be 
desirable to have guides placed inside the windows at 
a distance of 6 to 8 inches in front of them, and extend- 
ing 2 or 3 feet lower than the bottoms of the windows, 




FIG. 58 — END ELEVATION OF STORAGE HOUSE 

to deflect the cool air downward as it enters. Other- 
wise the entire circulation will be in the upper part of 
the room while the air will become stagnant near the 
floor. 

The walls should be double thick. Inside they 
should be boarded with matched lumber on the studs, 
and then closely ceiled on top of this. The ceiling 
should also be heavily painted. This is absolutely 
essential. Outside they should have a sheathing of 
inch lumber and a coat of building paper on top of 
this, the whole to be covered with matched novelty 



FRUIT STORAGE 1 65 

siding. This may seem a good deal of material to put 
into the walls, but it will pa3\ Still, one or two 
layers may be omitted " at the owner's risk." 

This house will cost from $800 to $1,200, depend- 
ing on who builds it, and where. 

Details of construction, such as ventilation, forma- 
tion of the w^alls, etc., may be varied to suit the needs 
and notions of the builder. 

XIX. SPECIAI. DESIGN FOR ARTHUR H.' HILL 

Mr. Arthur H. Hill, of Isle La Motte, Vt., projects 
an apple storage house of a somewhat novel type, to 
suit rather unusual conditions. He has an old stone 
quarry just on the bank of Lake Champlain. The 
stone has been taken out in such a manner as to leave 
a perpendicular wall a little over twenty feet in hight 
facing the lake. He proposes to build the storage 
house against the face of this rock Avail, thus saving 
the construction of the west wall of his storage house. 
The other three walls wall be built of stone taken 
from the quarry on the spot. 

The site has two other natural and unusual advan- 
tages. The position on the very shore of the lake 
makes it easy to secure a supply of ice, and the 
plan is to use ice in cooling the fruit rooms. In the 
second place, the apples are often shipped by boat, 
and a dock can easily be provided within a few feet of 
the building, so that barrels can be loaded directly 
out of the house and into the boat. Canal boats run 
directly from this point to New York and Buffalo, 
so that marketing is attended with the utmost con- 
venience. 



1 66 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 



/c e TrougH. 



/cinp and. PacMin^ /Joprn. 



£leua.ior. 



«' e' 



-+— • 



— .— — M.--^ ^O'-Q- 



/ce TrouQ^. 



^O'-d 



X 



3 



#— ■•— S.O'-0'' S-r-:,t 



FIG. 59 — PLAN OF STORAGE HOUSE FOR MR. ARTHUR H. HILL 

The proposed plan, shown herewith, calls for a 
building 50 feet square, and 24 feet high to the eaves, 
with four stories and a garret. Each story of the 



FRUIT STORAGE 



67 



Storage space proper is made low, only 6}^ feet be- 
tween floor and ceiling. This will accommodate two 
tiers of barrels on end, and, in case of crowding, 
another tier on the side. This makes less work in 
handling than when barrels are piled three tiers high, 




FIG. 60 — SECTION OF PROPOSED ICE-COOLED STORAGE-HOUSE 



and there is consequently less rough handling of the 
fruit. 

In the center is a shaft 8x8 feet in size, which 
ser\^es the triple purpose of elevator, ventilator, and 
support for the floors. This will be open on all four 
sides, but with doors arranged so as to control venti- 
lation when necessary. 



1 68 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

The Upper floor — the one opening on the bank — 
will be used as a packing room. The fruit will be re- 
ceived here, and may be discharged either from here 
or from the lower story. This room will be used also 
for icing the pipes in cooling the rooms below. 

The system of ice cooling proposed is that already 
described, page 103. Pipes of galvanized iron 8 inches 
in diameter will extend from the icing trough on the 
upper floor to the waste trough on the lower floor. 
These can be filled with the crushed ice and salt 
mixture when desired. If only a part of the storage 
space is in demand, the lower room will be cooled by 
filling the tubes as high as the ceiling of that room. 

The necessary ice house will be built against the 
storage house, probably on the edge of the bluff above, 
and on a level with the floor of the icing room. 

A lining of rough sheathing will be used between 
the stone wall and the cooling pipes, and another lining 
or curtain of lighter material will be placed inside the 
range of pipes. Other details of construction have not 
yet been determined on, but will be sufficiently obvious 
so that any practical builder can follow the general 
outlines of this plan and make the necessary adapta- 
tions under any circumstances which make a similar 
construction seem desirable. 



PART SIX 

Appendix 



169 



APPENDIX 



I. IMPORTS AND EXPORTS OF FRUIT, 
UNITED STATES 

The following tables, showing the imports and ex- 
ports of fruits, are taken directly or indirectly from the 
reports of the Secretary of the Treasury of the United 
States. Those indirectly secured come by way of a 
paper prepared by Mr. W. A. Taylor for the United 
States Department of Agriculture Year Book, 1897, 
page 305. This important article has not attracted the 
attention it deserves. It brings out, by means of 
statistics and text, the interesting fact that home- 
grown fruits are being rapidly substituted for foreign- 
grown fruits of many kinds. This condition is further 
established by the additional statistics given below. 

Take, for example, the items of raisins and prunes. 
The importations of these fruits increased steadily and 
enormously from 1830 up to 1890, but from that time 
have fallen off quite remarkably. This is due, of 
course, to the establishment of the raisin grape industry 
in California and of large prune orchards all along the 
western coast. In this direct connection there should 
be noted the other fact that, while importations have 
been greatly reduced, the United States has actually 

171 



172 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

opened a considerable export trade in these same 
fruits, as will be seen from these figures : 

EXPORTS OF RAISINS AND PRUNES, 1898-1900 



YEAR ENDING 


RAI 


5INS 


PRUNES 


DECEMBER 


Pounds 


Dollars 


Pounds 


Dollars 


1898 

1899 . . 

1900 


4,507,084 
3,554,920 
3,542,875 


222,975 
204,001 
217,502 


8,164,987 
16,519,024 
16,632,803 


537,628 
1,048,453 
1,031,946 



The increasing importance of the American prune 
industry may be better judged by the fact that the 
output has doubled within the last five years. The 
California prune crop, which forms the bulk of the 
output, has, during the last half decade, reached the 
figures given herewith. 

PRUNE OUTPUT OF CALIFORNIA 



Year 


Pounds 


Year 


Pounds 


1896 


. . . 55,200,000 


1898 


. . . 90,420,000 


1897 


. . 97,780,000 


1899 


. . . 114,227,000 




1900 (estimated) 




125,000,000 



Such fruits as olives, pineapples, bananas, and 
dates, not commercially produced in the United States, 
are imported every year in larger and larger quanti- 
ties. The whole fruit trade is increasing enormousl}' 
every year, so that any reduction in importations 
almost necessarily means a larger increase in domestic 
production. 

With these remarks the following tables are sub- 
mitted. 



APPENDIX 



173 



AVERAGE ANNUAIv IMPORTS OF FRUITS INTO THE 
UNITED STATES BY DECADES, IN POUNDS 



DECADE 
ENDING 


Raisins 


Currants 


Plums and 
Primes 


Dates 


Almonds 


1830. 
1840. 

1850. 
1860. 
1870. 

1880. 

1890. 

1890-97 . 






4,437,939 
13,203,732 
13,492,060 
19,008,255 
21,468,783 
33,731,861 
41,812,016 
18,473,610 


189,523 

489,747 

1,334,631 

3,176,469 

5,866,839 

16,491,727 

28,189,074 

34,505,448 


146,929 
584,969 
398,422 
3,833,635 
6,333,531 
25,108,911 
56,928,640 
14,323,463 


44,426 

429,355 

362,227 

1,553,679 

1,718,348 

4,059,331 

8,884,713 

15,193,490 


637,866 
2,240,451 
1,493,692 
3,352,759 
2.290,157 
2,514,072 
3,121,444 
3,500,835 



ANNUAI, IMPORTS OF FRUITS INTO THE UNITED STATES 
FOR TEN YEARS, IN POUNDS 



YEAR 


Raisins 


Currants 


Plums and 
Primes 


J'i£:s 


Dates 


Al- 
motids 


1891 . . 


37,174,186 


42,849,814 


41,012,571 


9,063,663 


20,091,012 


3,390 


1892 




18,873.690 


36,665,728 


10,374,874 


8,324,861 


17,089,367 


3,451 


1893 




23,598,985 


33.166,364 


23,225,821 


10,060,092 


16,248,515 


2,780 


1894 




13,660,498 


52,350,083 


8,749,349 


7,930,316 


12.408,409 


3,3M5 


1895 




13,888,095 


15,936,019 


15,311,695 


11,559,092 


14,716,765 


4,178 


1896 




10,202.086 


32,351.985 


852,944 


11,635,493 


13,575,254 


3,202 


189V 




11,917,756 


28,218,176 


736,987 


8,837,572 


12,225,111 


4,196 


1898 




5,386,177 


34,061,006 


613,887 


7,992,554 


12,346,466 




1899 




9,651,910 


32,244,832 


450,591 


8,535,967 


16,061,726 




1900 




4,332,040 


20,578,032 


729,611 


9,508,064 


20,550,435 





EXPORTS OF FRUITS FROM THE UNITED STATES FOR TEN 
YEARS 



YEAR 
END- 
ING 
JUNE 30 


APPLES, GREEN 
OR RIPE 


APPLES, DRIED 


CANNED 
FRUITS 


ALL 
OTHER 
PRES'D 
FRUITS 


ALL 
OTHER 
FRUITS 


Barrels 


Value 


Pounds 


Value 


Value 


Value 


Value 


1890 
1891 
1892 
1893 
1894 
1895 
1896 
1897 
1898 
1899 
1900 




453,.506 
135.207 
938;743 
408,014 
78,580 
818,711 
360,002 
1,503,987 
605,390 
380,222 
526,636 


$1,231,436 

476,897 
2,407,956 
1,097,967 

242,617 
1,954,318 

930,289 
2,371,143 
1,684,717 
1,210,459 
1,444,655 


20,861,462 

6,973,168 

26,042,063 

7,966,819 

2,846,645 

7,085,946 

26,691,963 

30,775,401 

31,031.2.54 

19.305,739 

34,964,010 


$1,038,682 
409,605 

1,288,102 
482,085 
168,054 
461,214 

1,340,507 

1,340,159 
605,390 
380,2-.'2 

2,247,851 


$698,321 

703,880 

1,558.820 

1,137,660 

660,723 

871,465 

1,376,281 

1,686,723 

1,624,741 

2,330,715 

3,122,831 


$59,401 

93,996 

214,738 

224,381 

211,215 

47,420 

70,353 

43,276 

82,504 

66,899 

62,370 


$1,003,846 
699,798 
1,095,844 
881,804 
1.016,397 
1,522,100 
1,868,350 
2,172,199 
3,562,191 
2,903,429 
4,598,295 






■ba 



»0 -^ lO C* kO 1 

O_Q0Q0 50_in_! 

05 -^ >0 CO « < 



■rH_iO_0,"n 

CO i-h'co'io 

(N iO CO i^ 

' 1:0 ^ O:^ 
CD T-i O 

•i.-eoo 



<i^T-i oj -^ Tt 



1~ CO • 00 to 

«0 O iO Oi 

10 in~ . TjTo 

eo(M .o-* 

*^ . co'-* 






dec 



«? T-l CO (M !?} CO 



I CO 10 o oc 00 Cv- 



i CO CO (N « 



OJ O «5 t^ O iO rH 
l^ :0 T-H Tt< O t- Tt< 

i>QOco__-^^ro ocD 

--t< to to 05 T* OJ t>. 



CO 00 GO «0 >0 O CO 

t^ O ?D C5 01 CO 00 
00 00 00 {- O Tf £-. 

I- in o (M (M CO 00 






^5 

55 ? 



Tf 0« »0 CO (N lO i> 

CD 00 CO CO in -^ CO 
T^ oo_»n 00 CO CO Tt<_ 

O!.-O00i0'l>^QD 
OJ T-i 1-1 £- OJ T>< 0« 



00 7-iT-iCn 0000 

00 CO CD OJ CO CD ©* 

o* »noo ^ in ocD 



CJOcoo-^osooiDi'in 

GOClOCOOCOlO-^OOS'-H 
CO CO^TH 1-K^OO^CO 05 O*^ CO 0<_ 

»o o 1-H i-T 00 co' >o' CO t - 00 



05-rtOC0 S>CO-^ 
i^ CD CO ^ O CO O 
O5_lN_0D00l-<^i-;,CO 

10*^0" eo'-^'^i-^i-^m' 

-# CD 02 00 T-1 01 W 

eo^in_oi_o< 03 o o 

^ ■^ ■^ ^ CO 10 ^ 



00l-n>C5»ncDt-^- 
oj 00 1- in T-i »n Tp c 

^ o N o m i-H CO a 



ii-HOii-HCicraTrcoi-m 



li' 



CO 00 C?5 Tf m Tf l~ CD 

oiTfOioooioi'-oi 
in co^co^in__in t--__co^C5^ 
nT^"':? ir CD o'ln in 



158 



I CO CO O* (M i?J CO ■ 



i-H^oo-^joooin-^oo 

•^O5GOi-(Oi00i--Q0C'00 

TH_in TP_cD CO T cr^i- 00 C5_ 
of o" oT o* rr' oT of of tf oT 



IN^O 00 J> J>;^in i-H 

05' CO C35" Co' Co" t-h" TT 
CO OS Tfi 1-1 CO l>. i^ 

i-iTt< 0-* in 



CO in,ro 

OOfT)"" 

CO in CD 



(Ncooioioo-^coins^o 
mojcoinino-. oomoo 
00 o in^oi,co_cD 00 m^cD t-^ 
1> Ci" m' CO o" o' of ■<*' CO CO 
t^oxi-in-*J^ooi-ii-i 
ino»^i-Oiinino5Q0Oi 



CO 05 oj t- 05 in •<* Tf f^ t- 

Tf Tf 0< OJ 1-1 00 lO t~ o i^ 

co<mncDi-iOJiOT)<coi-i 



CD COCOOJ 05 



CO s5 W CD CS Tfi 

05 05 th in in Tf> 



OJ 05 0*0 

CO 05 0(N 

in Win CO 



it-.Q0O5Q 

) o OS 05 o 

100 00 00 05 



174 





>j 


C50CO 




^ 


5>j 






?,^ijj : 




!^ 


g 




■v: 


•^ -^ 




^ 


o 
















^ 


(M 








§ 






















S5 


•S 


oog • 




^ 


eo 






































^ 












TjT 






TfT 




■i 


ss^ ■ 




i 


1 




§ 


C505 






^ 


i 












-8 


gO« • 






? 






































e 












1> 






CO 






gfTg 






^ 




•"-^ 






<» 




SSi 






§ 


§ 






















55 


"§ 


!PSl 






i 


















IS'" 






i 




^ 






d 




■fi 


'*050!>0i(?» 


^ 




a 


SiSJSg-^ 


ir^ 




§ 


S^ 


?^ 


1 








•3 


i-Jii- 


S 














(NO^OO 






^ 




^1 






rHO«(N • • • 


i5 
















est- 10 






t£ 




c^ 










i 












■§ 


goco 






s 




;Ci th O 






OS 






IS" 






1 




^ 






1 


i 




CO(M«OOS 




o 




■§ 




































c^ 










oo,<w 
CO 












. rt 








• • • o 








Q 


■ '^^ 


















s 


• -s^iS 






p 




o 






oa^' 


f^« 


^CC 





o 

^£ 





CO QO Oi CO 
CO(N(N 



O ■* t- Tf Tf O CO 
(?J i^ T-l l-H O J> 05 

1-1 QO Tt> O CO 00 =D_ 

:o »c 1-1 ao 

cod;© 



I CO QOO-^ » c* 

• Tf oj C5 o »n 1- 

, lO J> r-H -n 1-. i- 



i-ci-l0»0 
O5C0 t- » 

ocjDOeo 



CO m i^ 1-1 eo o CO 

05 !M CO OS I- W (N 
Ol_L-^C0_CO_ OS (N 

c^T-Tr^os" 
(ji in GO CO 



CO lO CO 1-1 J> »> 1-1 

oTi^oos 



w in -rt CO J> 00 i^ 

O -* O i-< OS CO i^ 
CO 00 -^ 1* r-l-^ 



QOOSXT-i^Se 



oo?oao> 



'. ".2 I '. S ^ 

C 3 O i; ^'C'd 

o a^ 12; g P3 fi. 






175 



176 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

III. STATE FRUIT-PACKAGE LAWS 

The writer is unable to say with certainty that the 
fruit-package laws transcribed below are the only ones 
on the statute books in the United States and Canada ; 
but he has carefully looked after all the states likely 
to have such laws, and these are all that can be found. 
Even these are mostly moribund. The Missouri apple- 
barrel law, for instance, is entirely unknown to many 
of the best horticulturists in that state. Some of 
whom inquiry was made said there was no fruit-pack- 
age law in existence in Missouri. In no state in the 
Union is one of these laws enforced. 

In fact a study of the laws themselves would give 
the entirest stranger the feeling that they were not 
seriously intended. Most of them have a manifestly 
perfunctory air about them. In most cases no adequate 
provision is made for their enforcement. In New 
York, for instance, no one is charged with the enforce- 
ment of the law. A man who considers himself de- 
frauded by short packages may bring action under the 
law, but he must do so at his own expense and risk. 

It seems to the writer that the practicability of a 
fruit-package law — at least, in the United States — may 
be seriously questioned. There is no denying that 
anything which would tend to secure greater uniform- 
ity of packages, or which would tend to decrease 
fraudulent packing, would be a good thing. But con- 
siderable machinery would be required to make such a 
law effective ; and after it was all arranged it would 
be harder to operate the machinery than to avoid the 
trouble itself. 



APPENDIX 177 

At any rate, the laws now on the statute books 
seem to be highly insufficient. The course of future 
legislation can not be predicted, of course, but it is 
hardly likely that sufficient discontent will arise under 
the present organization of the fruit trade to give the 
force necessary to pass any new law stringent enough 
to count for much. 

Following are the laws w^hich have been found un- 
repealed. Most of them are of comparatively recent 
date. 

THE NEW YORK SMALL-FRUIT PACKAGE LAW 

The New York small-fruit package law (chap. 
509, laws of 1899) is as follows: 

An Act to define the size of small-fruit packages. Became 
a law May 3, 1899, with the approval of the Governor. 
Passed, three. fifths being present. 

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and 
Assembly, do enact as follozvs : 

Section i. S ma ll-frttit packages.— The standard of meas- 
ures for buying and selling strawberries, raspberries, black- 
berries, currants, gooseberries, and other small fruits, shall 
be the quart, which shall contain when even full sixty-seven 
cubic inches; the pint when even full shall contain thirty- 
three and one-half cubic inches; the half-pint, which, when 
even full, shall contain sixteen and three-quarter cubic inches. 

Sec. 2. Marks on baskets.— h\\ manufacturers of small- 
fruit packages, such as quarts, pints, and half-pints, that 
make or cause to be made such packages that are of less size 
or capacity than the standard sizes as defined in Section i of 
this Act, shall mark each such quart, pint, and half-pint with 
the word "short" on the outside in letters not less than one- 
half inch in hight. 



178 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

Sec. 3. Penalty. — Any person in this state who sells or 
offers to sell fruit packages that are of less than the standard 
sizes and capacity as defined in Section i, or any person who 
sells or offers for sale fruit in packages that are of less size 
or capacity than those defined in Section i, that are not 
marked with the word "short," as directed in Section 2, shall 
be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction 
thereof in any court of competent jurisdiction shall be fined 
not less than five dollars and not more than twenty-five dol- 
lars, and shall stand committed to the county jail until such 
fine and costs are paid. 

Sec. 4. This Act shall take effect January first, nineteen 
hundred. 

NEW YORK APPIvE, PEAR, QUINCE, AND POTATO 
BARREly LAW 

(Laws of 1899, chap. 317.) 

An Act to amend the domestic commerce law in relation to 
the size of apple, pear, quince, and potato barrels. 

The People of the State of Neio York, represented in Senate and 
Assembly, do enact as folloivs : 
Section i. Section nine of chapter three hundred and 
seventy-six of the laws of eighteen hundred and ninety-six, 
entitled " An act relating to domestic commerce law, consti- 
tuting chapter thirty-four of the general laws," is hereby 
amended to read as follows: 

Sec. 9. Barrels of apples, quinces, pears, and potatoes. — A 
barrel of pears, quinces, or potatoes shall represent a quantity 
equal to one hundred quarts of grain or dry measure. A 
barrel of apples shall be of the following dimensions: head 
diameter, seventeen and one-eighth inches: length of stave, 
twenty-eight and one-half inches; bulge, not less than sixty- 
four inches outside measurement. Every person buying or 
selling apples, pears, quinces, or potatoes in this state by the 
barrel shall be understood as referring to the quantity or size 
of the barrel specified in this section, but when potatoes are 



APPENDIX 179 

sold by weight the quantity constituting a barrel shall be one 
hundred and seventy-four pounds. No person shall make, or 
cause to be made, barrels holding less than the quantity herein 
specified, knowing or having reason to believe that the same 
are to be used for the sale of apples, quinces, pears, or pota- 
toes, unless such barrel is plainly marked on the outside 
thereof with the words " short barrel " in letters of not less 
than one inch in hight. No person in this state shall use 
barrels hereafter made for the sale of such articles of a size 
less than the size specified in this section. Every person 
violating any provision of this section shall forfeit to the 
people of the state a sum of five dollars for every barrel put 
up made or used in violation of such provision. 
Sec. 2. This act shall take effect immediately. 

MASSACHUSETTS BERRY-BASKET LAW 

Late in the spring of 1901 the Massachusetts legis- 
lature passed the following law : 

An Act relative to the size of berry baskets. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General 
Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows : 

Sections one and two of chapter three hundred and thirty- 
nine of the acts of the year nineteen hundred are hereby 
amended to read as follows: 

Section i. Every basket or other receptacle containing 
one quart or less, used or intended to be used in the sale of 
strawberries, blackberries, cherries, currants, and goose- 
berries, shall be of the capacity of one quart, one pint, or one- 
half pint, Massachusetts standard dry measure. 

Sec. 2. Whosoever sells or offers for sale any such 
basket or other receptacle, containing one quart or less, not 
conforming to said standard to be used in the sale of any of 
the aforesaid fruit, and whoever sells or offers for sale any 
of the aforesaid fruit in any such basket or other receptacle, 
containing one quart or less, not conforming to the said stand- 



l8o FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

ard, shall be punished by a fine of not less than five dollars 
nor more than ten dollars for each offense. 

DELAWARE 

Section 22 of chapter 216 of the laws of Delaware, 
relating to the State Board of Agriculture, deals with 
the subject of fruit packages. The text follows: 

The said Board of Agriculture shall have power to com- 
pel all growers of fruit to stamp or mark the baskets, boxes, 
packages, crates, parcels, or other receptacles used by them 
for the shipment of any fruit or fruits, with his, her or their 
name or names, initial or initials, or with some distinguishing 
device or mark which may be readily and easily read and seen 
on the same; and said Board may adopt rules and regulations 
to carry this into effect. If any grower of any fruit or fruits 
shall neglect or fail, after ten days' notice of said Board to 
comply with the provisions of this section, he or she or they 
shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof 
shall forfeit and pay a fine of five dollars. — From Bulletin No. 
/, Delaware State Board of Agriculture, April 16, igoi. 

NEW JERSEY PEACH-BASKET LAW 

An Act for the protection of peach growers in the State 
of New Jersey, and to prevent deception in the size of peach 
baskets. Approved March 23, 1892. 

Section i. That the standard size of peach baskets in 
the State of New Jersey shall be sixteen quarts Winchester 
half-bushel measure; that the height of the basket shall be 
twelve and one-quarter inches, and that the width across the 
top shall be thirteen and one-half inches, and that the inside 
measurement shall contain one thousand and seventy-five and 
ten one-hundredths cubic inches, and that such basket shall 
be marked " Standard, N. J.," upon the staves just below the 
rim in Roman letters, which shall be burned on or printed 
thereon with permanent red paint in a straight line, and each 



APPKNDIX l8l 

of them shall not be less than one inch in length, and not less 
than one-half inch in width, and that every person who shall 
manufacture for sale, or who shall offer or expose for sale any 
basket to be used for shipping or selling peaches not stand- 
ard, shall distinctly and durably stamp, brand or mark upon 
such basket upon the stave just below the rim the number of 
quarts such basket contains. 

Sec. 2. That every person who shall manufacture, sell, 
or offer or expose for sale, or have in his or her possession 
with intent to sell, or to use any peach basket or baskets not 
stamped, branded or marked as required by the first section 
of this act to be stamped, branded or marked, shall for every 
such offense forfeit and pay a fine of not less than twenty- 
five dollars, and not more than fifty dollars, to be recovered 
with costs, in any of the courts of this state having cogni- 
zance thereof, in any action to be prosecuted by any prosecu- 
ting attorney in the name of the state, and the one-half of 
such recovery shall be paid to the informer, and the residue 
shall be applied to the support of the poor in the county where 
such recovery is had. 

Sec. 3. That all acts and parts of acts inconsistent with 
this act be and the same are hereby repealed, and this act 
shall take effect the first day of September, one thousand eight 
hundred and ninety-two. 

MISSOURI APPLE-BARREL LAW 

The Missouri apple-barrel law (Mo. R. S. 1899, 
Section 10,576) is as follows : 

Whenever apples shall be sold by the barrel, and no 
special agreement is made as to the size of the barrel by the 
parties, the size shall be as follows: Length of barrel, twenty- 
eight and one-half inches (28;^), with chines of three-fourths 
of an inch at the ends; the diameter of the heads shall be 
seventeen and one-fourth inches (17^), and the diameter of 
the center of the barrel inside shall be twenty and one-half 
inches (20^). 



1 82 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 



CANADIAN FRUIT-PACKAGE LAW 

Chapter 26, sections 4 and 5, of the statutes of 
1901, Dominion of Canada, make the following pro- 
visions : 

Section 4. (i) All apples packed in Canada for export 
for sale by the barrel in closed barrels shall be packed in good 
and strong barrels of seasoned wood having dimensions not 
less than the following, namely: twenty-six inches and one-/ 
fourth between the heads, inside measure, and a head diam- 
eter of seventeen inches, and a middle diameter of eighteen 
inches and one-half, representing as nearly as possible ninety- 
six quarts. 

(2) When apples, pears, or quinces are sold by the barrel, 
as a measure of capacity, such barrel shall not be of lesser 
dimensions than those specified in this section. 

Every person who offers or exposes for sale, or who packs 
for exportation, apples, pears, or quinces by the barrel, other- 
wise than in accordance with the foregoing provisions of this 
section, shall be liable, on summary conviction, to a penalty 
of twenty-five cents for each barrel of apples, pears, or 
quinces so offered or exposed for sale or packed. 

Sec. 5. (i) Every box of berries or currants offered for 
sale and every berry box manufactured and offered for sale 
in Canada shall be plainly marked on the side of the box, in 
black letters at least half an inch square, with the word 
"Short," unless it contains when level-full as nearly exactly 
as practicable — 

{a) at least four-fifths of a quart, or 

{^) two-fifths of a quart. 

(2) Every basket of fruit offered for sale in Canada, unless 
stamped on the side plainly in black letters at least three- 
quarters of an inch deep and wide, with the word "Quart" in 
full, preceded with the minimum number of quarts, omitting 
fractions, which the baskets will hold when level-full shall 



APPENDIX 183 

contain, when level-full one or other of the following quan- 
tities: — 

(a) fifteen quarts or more; 

{d) eleven quarts, and be five and three-quarter inches 
deep, perpendicularly, inside measurement, as nearly exactly 
as practicable; 

{c) six and two-thirds quarts, and be four and five-eighths 
inches deep, perpendicularly, inside measurement, as nearly 
exactly as practicable; or 

(d) two and two-fifths quarts, as nearly exactly as practi- 
cable. 

(3) Every person who neglects to comply with any pro- 
vision of this section, and any person who sells or offers for 
sale any fruit or berry boxes in contravention of this section, 
shall be liable, on summary conviction, to a fine of not less 
than twenty-five cents for each basket or box so sold or offered 
for sale. 

(4) This section shall come into effect on the first day of 
February, one thousand nine hundred and two. 

CANADIAN FRUIT MARKS ACT OF 19OI 

Chapter 27, statutes of 1901, assented to May 23, 
1 90 1, makes the following provisions: 

1. This Act may be cited as T/ie Fruit Marks Act, 1901. 

2. This Act shall come into operation on the first day of 
July, 1901. 

3. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires: — 
(a.) The expression "closed package" means a box or 

barrel of which the contents cannot be seen or inspected when 
such package is closed; 

{b.) The expression "fruit" shall not include wild fruit, 
nor cranberries whether wild or cultivated. 

4. Every person who, by himself or through the agency 
of another person, packs fruit in a closed package, intended 
for sale, shall cause the package to be marked in a plain and 
indelible manner, before it is taken from the premises where 
it is packed, — 



l84 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

(a.) with the initials of the Christian names, and the full 
surname and address of the packer; 

(d.) with the name of the variety or varities; and 
(c.) with a designation of the grade of the fruit. 

5. No person shall sell, or offer, expose, or have in his 
possession for sale any fruit packed in a closed package and 
intended for sale unless such package is marked as required 
by the next preceding section. 

6. No person shall sell, or offer, expose, or have in his 
possession for sale any fruit packed in a closed package, upon 
which package is marked any designation which represents 
such fruit as of finest, best or extra good quality, unless such 
fruit consist ol well-grown specimens of one variety, sound, 
of nearly uniform size, of good color for the variety, of nor- 
mal shape and not less than ninety per cent free from scab, 
worm-holes, bruises and other defects, and properly packed. 

7. No person shall sell, or offer, expose, or have in his 
possession for sale any fruit packed in any package in which 
the faced or shown surface gives a false representation of the 
contents of such package; and it shall be considered a false 
representation when more than fifteen per cent of such fruit 
is substantially smaller in size than, or inferior in grade to, or 
different in variety from, the faced or shown surface of such 
package. 

8. Every person who, by himself or through the agency 
of another person, violates any of the provisions of this Act 
shall, for each offense, upon summary conviction, be liable to 
a fine not exceeding one dollar and not less than twenty-five 
cents for each package which is packed, sold, offered, exposed, 
or had in possession for sale contrary to the provisions of this 
Act, together with the costs of prosecution; and in default of 
payment of such fine and costs, shall be liable to imprison- 
ment, with or without hard labor, for a term not exceeding 
one month, unless such fine and the costs of enforcing it are 
sooner paid. 

9. Whenever any fruit packed in a closed package is 
found to be falsely marked, any inspector charged with the 
enforcement of this Act may efface such false marks and mark 



APPENDIX 185 

the words " falsely marked " in a plain and indelible manner 
on such package. 

The Inspector shall give notice by letter or telegram to 
the packer whose name is marked on the package before he 
marks the words " falsely marked " on such package. 

10. Every person who wilfully alters, effaces, or obliter- 
ates wholly or partially, or causes to be altered, effaced or 
obliterated, any inspector's marks on any package which 
has undergone inspection shall incur a penalty of forty dollars. 

11. The person on whose behalf any fruit is packed, sold, 
offered or had in possession for sale, contrary to the provisions 
of the foregoing sections of this Act, shall h& pri7na facie liable 
for the violation of this Act. 

12. Any person charged with the enforcement of this Act 
may enter upon any premises to make any examination of any 
packages of fruit suspected of being falsely marked in viola- 
tion of any of the provisions of this Act, whether such pack- 
ages are on the premises of the owner, or on other premises, 
or in the possession of a railway or steamship company; and 
any person who obstructs or refuses to permit the making of 
any such examination shall, upon summary conviction, be 
liable to a penalty not exceeding five hundred dollars and not 
less than twenty-five dollars, together with the costs of prose- 
cution, and in default of payment of such penalty and costs, 
shall be liable to imprisonment, with or without hard labor, 
for a term not exceeding six months, unless the said penalty 
and costs of enforcing it are sooner paid. 

13. In any complaint, information or conviction under 
this Act, the matter complained of may be declared, and shall 
be held to have arisen, within the meaning of Part LVIII of 
The Criminal Code, 1892, at the place where the fruit was 
packed, sold, offered, exposed or had in possession for sale. 

14. No appeal shall lie from any conviction under this 
Act except to a superior, county, circuit or district court, or 
the court of the sessions of the peace having jurisdiction 
where the conviction was had; and such appeal shall be 
brought, notice of appeal in writing given, recognizance 
entered into, or deposit made within ten days after the date 



1 86 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

of conviction; and such trial shall be heard, tried, adjudi- 
cated upon and decided, without the intervention of a jury, 
at such time and place as the court or judge hearing the trial 
appoints, within thirty days from the date of conviction, un- 
less the said court or judge extends the time for hearing and 
decision beyond such thirty days; and in all other respects 
not provided for in this Act the procedure under part LVIII 
of The Criminal Code, 1892, shall, so far as applicable, apply. 

15. Any pecuniary penalty imposed under this Act shall, 
when recovered, be payable one-half to the informant or 
complainant and the other half to His Majesty. 

16. The Governor in Council may make such regulations 
as he considers necessary in order to secure the efficient en- 
forcement and operation of this Act; and may by such regu- 
lations impose penalties not exceeding fifty dollars on any 
person offending against them; and the regulations so made 
shall be in force from the date of their publication in The 
Canada Gazette or from such other date as is specified in the 
proclamation in that behalf; and the violation of any such 
regulation shall be deemed an offense against this Act and 
punishable as such. 



IV. APPLE SHIPPERS' RULES 

The following important resolutions concerning the 
apple trade are taken from the reports of the National 
Apple Shippers' Association. (See Year Book Nat. 
Ap. Ship. Asso., 1900:5.) 

standard barrels. — Resolved. That this Association recog- 
nizes as the standard barrel for apples, a barrel which is of 
the capacity of a flour barrel, which is 17}^ inches in diameter 
of head, and 28^ inches in length of stave, and bulge not less 
than 64 inches, outside measurement. (Adopted Aug. i, 1895. 
Amended Aug. 6, 1897.) 



APPENDIX 187 

Requirements for No. i apples. — Resolved, That the standard 
for size for No. i apples shall not be less than 23^2 inches in 
diameter and shall include such varieties as the Ben Davis, 
Willow Twig, Baldwin, Greening, and other varieties kindred 
in size. That the standard for such varieties as Romanite, 
Russett, Wine Sap, Jonathan, Missouri Pippin, and other 
varieties kindred in size shall not be less than 2^^ inches. 
And further that No. i apples shall be at time of packing 
practically free from the action of worms, defacement of 
surface, or breaking of skin; shall be hand-picked from the 
tree, a bright and normal color, and shapely form. 

Reqtiirements for No, 2 apples. — No. 2 apples shall be hand- 
picked from the tree; shall not be smaller than 23>4 inches in 
diameter. The skin must not be broken or the apple bruised. 
This grade must be facea and packed with as much care as 
No. I fruit. (This rule determining what a No. 2 apple shall 
be was made a by-law of this Association Aug. 3, 1900, and 
appears among the by-laws.) 

Barrel legislation. — Resolved, That the State Vice-Presi- 
dents be directed to prepare proper resolutions, urging the 
enactment by their respective State Legislatures of legislation 
making the legal barrel for apples conform to the package 
adopted by this Association — that is, lyig inches head and 283^ 
inches stave, with bulge not less than 64 inches, outside 
measurement. (Adopted Aug. 2, 1895. Amended Aug. 6, 
1897.) 

Transportation necessities. — Resolved, That this Association 
strongly urge the necessity and fairness of the adoption of a 
uniform weight of 150 pounds for a barrel of apples as a basis 
of rate thereon and directs the new Transportation Committee 
of this body to immediately take steps to urge the acceptance 
of such weight on part of the rate-making committees of the 
railroads. (Adopted Aug. 6, 1897.) 

Resolved, That the Transportation Committee be directed 
to secure from the transportation companies a regular bill of 
lading instead of the "Shippers' Loading and Count" Bill of 
Lading. (Adopted Aug. 6, 1897.) 



1 88 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

Resolved, That the Transportation Committee recom- 
mends that a vigorous protest be made against present 
methods regarding claims against transportation companies 
and the demand that a settlement must be made no later than 
from thirty to sixty days from the filing of a claim for loss or 
damage accompanied by proper proofs, and that sister organ- 
izations be requested to assist in the agitation for justice until 
justice shall be accorded just claimants. (Adopted Aug. 4, 
1898.) 

Protection during growth. — The leading agricultural papers 
of the country are doing a splendid v^rork in directing the 
attention of fruit growers to the means offered for the detec- 
tion, location, and correction of fungus and other diseases of 
apples. It is quite within the province of a deliberative body 
like ours, composed as it is of representative dealers and 
exporters from different sections of the country, to express 
its appreciation of the value of the scientific deductions, the 
practical application of which is doing so much annually 
toward saving crops in infected districts from utter anni- 
hilation. 

This Association would fail in its duty if it refused to 
recognize a widespread neglect of the advantages afforded by 
judicious cultivation and spraying of apple orchards, as 
recommended by state, county, and district agricultural 
societies. Fruit growers, especially in the east, must adopt 
these measures if they expect to retain their hold upon the 
trade of the country and continue their present position in the 
apple markets of Europe. 

In view of these facts and conditions be it therefore 
Resolved, that the members of this Association desire it to 
be placed upon record that they will, as far as possible, con- 
tinue the agitation upon this now most important question of 
the proper care of fruit during cultivation, and to that end be 
it further resolved that copies of this recommendation be for- 
warded to the agricultural press of the country with a request 
for the endorsement and publication of such part as may seem 
to them fit and proper. 



APPENDIX 189 

V. THE NATIONAL LEAGUE OF COMMISSION 
MERCHANTS OF THE UNITED STATES 

Shippers seeking reliable commission men to whom 
fruit may be consigned may find it convenient to con- 
sult the following roster of members of the National 
League of Commission Merchants. The present offi- 
cers of the League are: D. W. Longfellow, Minneap- 
olis, President; A. Warren Patch, Boston, Secretary, 
and C. W. Nokes, Cleveland, Treasurer. 

The following statement of the objects of the league 
is made by its officers: 

" Individuals or isolated communities can accomplish but 
limited results, therefore an organization of national extent 
and influence is indispensable. 

" In this organization we propose to combine good, respon- 
sible commission merchants of every large commercial center, 
and with the aid of growers, producers, and shippers, either 
organized or unorganized, work together for the general wel- 
fare of the trade. 

"A large percentage of the food products of the earth is 
handled on commission. The commission merchant is, and of 
necessity must always be, an important factor in the com- 
merce of the world. 

" Our organization lays its foundation on the personal in- 
tegrity and financial responsibility of its individual members. 

" The conditions of membership are exacting, but not ex- 
clusive. Reputable commission merchants, where an organi- 
zation may be legally formed, are invited to join us under our 
constitution and by-laws. An unworthy, irresponsible com- 
mission merchant may, by misrepresentation, enter this or- 
ganization, but when his unfitness or the unworthiness of any 
member is discovered, expulsion will surely follow. 

" Financial soundness and honesty for the individual 
members, combined in a national organization of broad com- 



I90 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

mercial views, must and will command the confidence and 
respect of the American people. 

"To promote these ends we invoke aid and sympathy of 
all commercial and agricultural organizations. 

"The rapidity and facility of transportation make all 
markets accessible, all products obtainable; the products of a 
single farm, dairy or garden may be distributed over and con- 
sumed in more than half the states in the Union. 

" Every grower, producer, or shipper may reach the Na- 
tional League through his commission merchant, and have his 
views for the general welfare carefully considered. 

"Farmers' clubs, fruit and vegetable growers' associa- 
tions, shippers of butter and other dairy products, and all 
commercial organizations, will find us ready to unite with 
them in defeating unjust laws, in collecting and disseminating 
information, in improving business methods, in resisting dis- 
criminations and exactions, and in demanding and enforcing 
responsibility and integrity. 

"We claim no section; we are non-partisan and non-sec- 
tarian. We guarantee our sympathy and support to every 
enterprise that may increase the rewards of labor or add to 
the comfort or happiness of the home. 

"The following resolutions were adopted at the Second 
Annual Convention in Cincinnati, January lo, 1894: 

" ' ist.— That the membership of this National League is 
composed of reputable commission merchants in each city 
where a Branch League has been established, and that they 
are all worthy of the confidence of any and all shippers; that 
while one of the objects for the establishment of this League 
is to further the interests of its members in an increase of 
business, yet another and very important object to the shipper 
is to place within his reach such houses as he will at all times 
feel safe in shipping to, and at the same time to protect him 
against the frauds who sail under the head of commission 
merchants, who, with their smooth tongues, flaming letter 
heads, and fabulous quotations, induce shipments, for which 
they never expect to make any returns, or by some other 
trickery cheat the shipper out of his just returns. 



APPENDIX 191 

"'2d. — That it is the purpose and intention of this Na- 
tional League to ferret out these fraudulent houses, to keep a 
record of them, and to furnish any necessary information 
regarding such houses to all shippers of produce who may 
inquire for the same.' 

" 'For such information inquire of the Secretary of the 
Branch League in the city in which the party resides of whom 
you wish a report.' " 

SECRETARIES OF BRANCH LEAGUES 
Baltimore— Edw. S. Evans, 214 Light Street, Baltimore, Md. 
Boston— H. H. Kendall, 15 F. H. Market, Boston, Mass. 
Buffalo— M. U. Mackey, 40 W. Market Street. Buffalo, N. Y. 
Chicago— Theo. C. H. Wegeforth, 133 S. Water Street, 
Chicago. 

Cincinnati— H. C. Beekley, 244 W. Sixth Street, Cincin- 
nati, O. 

Cleveland— C. W. Nokes, 36 Huron Street, Cleveland, O. 
Columbus— C. C. Vail, 114 E. Town Street, Columbus, O. 
Denver— F. H. Leonard, 1528-30 Market Street, Denver, Col. 
Detroit — John D. Wiley, 20 Woodbridge Street, W. Detroit. 
Mich. 

Indianapolis— B. F. Hitz, 30 S. Delaware Street, Indianapolis. 

Kansas City— Charles G. Haines, 112 W. Fourth Street, 
Kansas City, Mo. 

Louisville — S. S. Thompson, 210 Jefferson Market, Louis- 
ville, Ky. 

Memphis — L. Lawhorn, 342 Front Street, Memphis, Tenn. 

Milwaukee— J. H. Wussow, 269 Broadway, Milwaukee, Wis. 

Minneapolis— D. W. Longfellow, 208 N. Sixth Street, Min- 
neapolis, Minn. 

Mobile — Philip Muscat, 64 S. Commerce Street, Mobile, Ala. 

New Orleans — George W. Davidson, Poydras Street, New 
Orleans, La. 

New York — E. A. Brown, 306 Washington Street, New York. 
Omaha— W. H. Hazzard, 50S S. Tenth Street, Omaha, Neb. 
Philadelphia— S. S. Darmon, 120 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, 
Pa. 



192 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

Pittsburg — Charles A. Muehlbronner, 623 Liberty Street, 
Pittsburg, Pa. 

Richmond — R. M. Mclntire, 1320 E. Cary Street, Richmond, 
Va. 

St. Louis — G. G. Fairham, 918 N. Third Street, St. Louis, Mo. 
St. Paul— J. E. Mulrooney, 79 E. Third Street, St. Paul. Minn. 

ROSTER OF MEMBERS 

BALTIMORE, MD. 

C. H. Anderson <fc Co., 123 S. Calvert Street, 

Fruits and General Produce. 
Blankfard & Meginniss, 135 W. Pratt Street, 

Fruits and General Produce. 
Thomas Bond & Son, 216 Light Street, 

Fruits and Vegetables. 
L Cooke & Sons, 7 W. Pratt Street, 

Butter, Eggs, Poultry, and Dried Fruits. 
Dix & Wilkins, 9 E. Lombard Street, 

Florida, California, and Foreign Products. 
T. H. Evans & Co., 214 Light Street Wharf, 

Fruits and General Produce. 
Henderson, Linthicum & Co., 3 E. Camden Street. 

Fruits and General Produce. 
T. H. Kepner & Co., 14 E. Camden Street, 

Fruits and General Produce. 
G. M. Lamb & Bro., 301 Exchange Place, 

Butter, Eggs, and Poultry. 
Edward L. Palmer & Co., 11 E. Lombard Street, 

Fruits, Canned Goods, Groceries. 
C. Shipley & Co., 107 S. Calvert Street, 

Fruits and General Produce. 
William A. Schutze & Co., 118-120 S. Charles Street. 

Butter, Eggs, Poultry, Dried Fruits. 
John Staum & Sons, 210 Light Street, 

Fruits and Vegetables. 
Stevens Bros., 226 Charles Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 
The Snyder & Blankfard Co., 226 Light Street, 

Vegetables and Fruits. 
C. P. Tatem & Co., 121 Light Street, 

Fruits and General Produce. 



APPENDIX 193 

BOSTON, MASS. 

Bennett, Rand & Co., 19 and 20 N. Market Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 
W. H. Blodget Co., 50 Clinton Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 
F. H. Bowles & Co., 113-115 S. Market Street, 

Butter, Cheese, and Eggs. 
Chapin Brothers, qy S. Market Street. 

Fruit, Produce, and Southern Produce. 
Conant & Bean, 15 N. Side Faneuil Hall Market, 

Fruits and General Produce. 
Curtis & Co., 104-106 Faneuil Hall Market, 

Fruits and General Produce. 
T. E. Holway & Co., 15 N. Market Street, 

Fruits and General Produce. 
Amos Keyes & Co., 22 Blackstone Street, 

Butter, Cheese, Eggs, Poultry, Game. 
A. & O. W. Mead & Co., 35 N. Market Street, 

Fruits, Produce, Butter, Eggs, Poultry. 
J. D. Mead & Co., cor. Clinton and Fulton Streets, 

Fruits and General Produce. 
Patch & Roberts, 17 N. Market Street. 

Fruits and General Produce. 
Porter Brothers Company, 99-101 S. Market Street, 

California Fruits and Vegetables. 
Snow & Co., 48 Clinton Street, 

Fruits and Vegetables. 
Winn, Ricker & Co., 93 Faneuil Hall Market, 

Foreign and Domestic Fruits and Produce. 
York & Whitney, i N. Market Street, 

Fruits and Vegetables. 

BUFFALO, N. Y. 

Bean, Coward & Chaddock, Elk Street Market, 

Fruits and Produce. 
F. Brennisen & Son, 156-158 Michigan Street, 

Fruits and General Produce. 
J. H. Gail, 94 W. Market and 153 Michigan Streets. 

Fruits and General Produce. 
George Hornung, 54 W. Market and 115 Michigan Streets, 

Fruits and Produce. 



194 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

Mackey & Williams, 62 W. Market and 125 Michigan Streets, 

Fruits and Produce. 

Paine & Williams, 82-S4 W. Market Street, 

Fruits and General Produce. 

Potter & Williams, 144 and 148 Michigan Street, 

Fruits and General Produce. 

Rogers Commission House, 149 Michigan Street, 

Fruits and General Produce. 

Isaac G. Vishion, 66 W. Market Street, 

Butter, Eggs, and General Produce. 

J. J. White, 68 W. Market and 179-181 Perry Streets, 

Fruits and General Produce. 

CHICAGO, ILL. 

M. Baker & Co., 93 S. Water Street, 

Fruits and General Produce. 

A. H. Barber, 229 S. Water Street, 

Butter, Eggs, Poultry, and Produce. 

Barnett Bros., 159 S. Water Street, 

Fruits and General Produce. 

R. A. Burnett & Co., 163 S. Water Street, 

Honey, Fruit, and Produce. 

Cuneo Brothers, 113 S. Water Street, 

Foreign and Domestic Fruits, Nuts, etc. 

Frost Bros., 122 S. Water Street, 

Fruits and General Produce. 

Garibaldi & Cuneo, 81-83 S. Water Street, 

Foreign and Domestic Fruits, Nuts, etc. 

M. George & Co., 95 S. Water Street, 

Fruits and General Produce. 

Moses Gray & Co., 249-51 S. Water Street, 

Butter, Eggs, Poultry, Fruits, Produce. 

F. Heinze & Co., 171 S. Water Street, 

Fruits and Vegetables. 

Lepman & Heggie, 108-110 S. Water Street, 

Butter, Eggs, Poultry, Game. 

C. F. Love & Co., 89 S. Water Street, 

Fruits and General Produce. 

George Middendorf & Co., 135-137 S. Water Street. 

Fruits, Produce. Butter, Eggs, Cheese. 

A. L. McCIay & Co., 141 S. Water Street, 

Fruits and Vegetables. 



APPENDIX 195 

F. E. Nellis & Co., 153-155 S. Water Street, 

Fruits and General Produce. 

F. Newhall & Sons, 131 S. Water Street, 

Fruits, Apples, Cranberries, etc. 
Mark Owen & Co., 115 S. Water Street, 

General Commission Merchants. 
Porter Bros. Co., 97 S. Water Street, 

California, Domestic, and Foreign Fruits, 
J. C. & C. R. Scales, 114 S. Water Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 
P. C. Sears, 121 S. Water Street, 

Fruits and General Produce. 
Smith-Cordes Co., 139 S. Water Street, 

Vegetables, Fruits, Produce. 
H. P. Stanley Co., 75 S. Water Street, 

Apples, Cranberries, Oranges, Lemons. 

G. M. H. Wagner & Sons, 165 S. Water Street, 

Fruits and Vegetables. 
Wayne & Low, 185 S. Water Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 
C. H. Weaver & Co., 129 S. Water Street, 

Vegetables, Fruits, Produce. 
Theo. C. H. Wegeforth & Co., 133 S. Water Street, 

Fruits and General Produce. 
J. H. White & Co., 104-106 S. Water Street, 

Eggs, Butter, Poultry, Veal, Game. 

CINCINNATI, O. 

F. Ankenbauer & Sons, 118-118^ E. Front Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 
Armacost, Riley & Co., iii E. Front Street, 

Fruits and General Produce. 
H. C. Beekley & Co., 244 W. Sixth Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 
I. J. Cannon & Co., no E. Front Street, 

Fruits and Vegetables. 
John Curren & Co., 29 Walnut Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 
C. M. Davidson & Co., 112 E. Front Street, 

Foreign and Domestic Fruits. 
F. Delsignore & Co., 114-116 E. Front Street, 

Foreign and California Fruits. 



196 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

F. Devoto & Bro., 108 E. Front Street, 

Foreign and Domestic Fruits, Berries. 
M. Fugazzi & Co., 132-134 W. Sixth Street, 

Fruits and Vegetables. 
Funck Brothers, 228-230 W, Sixth Street, 

Southern Fruits and Vegetables. 
Glas, Bloom & Co., 115-117 E. Front Street, 

Green and Dried Fruits, Produce. 
J. B. Hammer & Co., 125 E. Front Street, 

Fruits and General Produce. 
D. Hoppe & Co., 31 Walnut Street, 

Eggs, Butter, Poultry, Game, Fruits. 
J. Leverone & Co., 100-102 E, Front Street, 

Fruits and Vegetables. 

G. E. Markley & Co., 212-214 W. Sixth Street, 

Foreign and Domestic Fruits, Vegetables. 
F. J. Nobel, 208 W. Sixth Street, 

Fruits, Vegetables, Hot-house Products. 
Pieper & Berghegger, 138 W. Court Street, 

Fruits. Vegetables, Butter, Eggs. 
Henry Ransick & Sons, 226 W. Sixth Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 
P. J. Reitz & Co., 121 E. Front Street, 

Fruits and Vegetables, 
Smith, Reiley & Co., 204 W. Sixth Street, 

Fruits and Vegetables. 
Telker & Dunker, 118 E. Court Street, 

Fruits, Produce, Butter, Eggs, Poultry. 
Weil, Brockman & Co., 109 E. Front Street, 

Fruits and Vegetables. 
S. & M. Weil & Co., 106 E. Front Street, 

Fruits, Vegetables, Berries, Melons. 

CLEVELAND, O. 

W. A. Banks Co., 84-86 Broadway, 

Fruits and Produce. 
Corso Brothers, 115 Broadway, 

Wholesale Fruits. 
A. R. Duncan, Jr., 119-121 Sheriff Street, 

Butter, Cheese, Eggs, Poultry, Produce. 
Haas Brothers, 76-78 Broadway, 

Fruits and General Produce. 



APPENDIX 1^7 

Hayes, Blair & Co., 120 Broadway, 

Tropical and Domestic Fruits, Produce. 
Hurd & Ricksecker, 9 Huron Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 
The Kelley Co., 150-152 Sheriff Street, 

Fruit, Produce, and Seeds. 
D. Martin & Co., 84-86 Broadway, 

Fruits and Produce. 
Myers, Weil & Deutch, 10-12 Huron Street, 

General Fruit and Produce Commission Merchants. 
The C. U. Nokes Co., 36-38 Huron Street, 

Fruits and General Produce. 
Strauss & Joseph, 91 Broadway, 

Wholesale Produce Commission. 
George Willard, 270 Pearl Street, 

Wholesale Commission Merchant. 

COLUMBUS, O. 

Henry Becker, 121 S. Fourth Street, 

Fruits. Vegetables, Butler, Eggs. 
William M. Fisher & Sons, 120-124 E. Town Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 
Evans & Turner, Town Street, cor. Fourth, 

Fruits and Produce. 
Pletsch & Sutton, Town Street, cor. Fourth, 

Fruits and Vegetables. 
William Larimore, 129 S. Fourth Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 
Sutton Brothers, 113-115 S. Fourth Street. 

Fruits and Produce. 
Henry Turkopp & Co., Town and Third Steets, 

Foreign and Domestic Fruits. 
J. P. Vail & Sons, 114 E. Town Street, 

Fruits and Produce, Butter and Eggs. 

DENVER, COL. 

The Donaldson & Howard Com. Co., 1548-1550 Market 
Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 
Humphreys Commission Co., 1520-1522 Market Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 



198 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

F. H. Leonard & Co., 1528-1530 Market Street, 

Butter, Cheese, and Eggs. 
The Liebhardt Commission Co., 1624-1630 Market Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 
Pinkett Brothers, 1645 Market Street, 

Butter, Eggs, and Poultry. 

DETROIT, MICH. 

Lichtenberg & Sons, 19-25 W. Woodbridge Street, 

Fruits, Produce, Beans, etc. 
Walker Egg and Produce Co., 54-56 Woodbridge Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 
Edward Read, 26 W. Woodbridge Street, 

Fruits, Vegetables, Beans, etc. 
H. F. Rose & Co., 24 W. Woodbridge Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 
Charles W. Rudd, 31 W. Woodbridge Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 
Alfred Rush & Sons, 45-49 Woodward Avenue, 

Fruits and Produce. 
D. O. Wiley & Co., 20 Woodbridge Street, 

Fruits, Produce, Beans, etc. 



INDIANAPOLIS, IND. 

J. H. Crall & Co., 122 S. Delaware Street, 

Fruits and Vegetables. 
George Hitz & Co., 30-32 and 68-70 S. Delaware Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 
James L. Keach, 112 S. Delaware Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 
John W. Neumann & Co., 118-120 S. Delaware Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 
E. F. Shideler & Co., 43-45 S. Delaware Street, 

Fruits and General Produce. 
Syerup & Co., 22-24 S. Delaware Street, 

Foreign and Domestic Fruits, Vegetables. 
George B. Walton & Co., 36 S. Delaware Street, 

Fruits and General Produce. 
The D. A. Williams Produce and Commission Co., 131 E. 
Maryland Street. 



APPENDIX 199 

KANSAS CITY, MO. 

A. W. Bear Commission Co., 119 E. Fourth Street, 

Butter, Eggs, and Poultry. 
T. C. Bottom & Co., 540 Walnut Street, 

Fruit and Vegetables. 
C. C. demons & Co., 204 Temple Block, 

Wholesale Fruits and Produce. 
O. C. Evans & Co., 302 Delaware Street, 

Apples, Potatoes, Onions, and Cabbage. 

C. M. Feiring & Co., 409 Walnut Street, 

Butter, Eggs, Poultry, and Cheese. 
Ginocchio-Jones Fruit Co., 5i9-b2i Walnut Street, 

Foreign and Domestic Fruits. 
A. S. Haines & Son, 112 W. Fourth Street, 

Fruits, Vegetables, and Produce. 
H. Kesting, 411 Walnut Street, 

Foreign and Domestic Fruits and Nuts. 
Papendick Produce Co., 310 Grand Avenue, 

Eggs, Butter, and Poultry. 
P. V. Rocco, Bro. & Co., 515-517 Walnut Street, 

Fruits, Nuts, etc. 

D. E. Smeltzer & Co., 520 Walnut Street, 

Small Fruits, Celery, and Vegetables. 

LOUISVILLE, KY. 

John T. Allen & Co.» 108-110 W. Jefferson Street. 

Fruits and Vegetables. 

E. H. Bowen & Co., 119-123 Washington Street, 

Apples, Potatoes, Onions, Beans. 
Jos. Denunzio Fruit Co., 316 and 322 W, Jefferson Street, 

Fruits and Nuts. 
A. M. Emler, 241 Jefferson Market, 

Potatoes, Onions, Apples, and Cabbage. 
Charles H. Kahlert, 619 W. Market Street, 

Fruits, Produce, and Vegetables. 
Kohlhepp & lula, 204 E. Jefferson Street, 

Fruits and General Produce. 
Mayer, Mitchell & Co., 215 E. Jefferson Street, 

Fruits, Vegetables, etc. 
John Schaefer & Sons, 331 E. Market Street, 

Potatoes, Onions, Apples, Cabbage, etc. 



200 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

Schwarz Brothers, 941 to 945 E. Market Street, 

Potatoes, Onions and Onion Sets. 
D. B. Sperry, 214-216 Second Street, 

Apples, Potatoes, Beans, Onions, etc. 
Thompson & Co., 210-212 Jefferson Market, 

Fruits, Vegetables, Melons, etc. 

MEMPHIS, TENN. 

D. Canale & Co., 329 Main Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 
M. E. Carter & Co., Memphis, Tenn., 

Fruits and Produce. 
T. C. Guinee & Co., Front Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 
L. Lawhorn & Co., 342 Front Street, 

Fruits, Produce, and Potatoes. 

Seessel & Ashner, 336 Front Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 

MILWAUKEE, WIS. 

E. R. Godfrey & Sons Co., 257-259 Broadway, 

Fruits and Produce. 
Nichols, Janssen & Klein, 277 Broadway, 

Fruits and Vegetables. 
Pastorino & Schiappacasse, 287 Broadway, 

Fruits and Nuts. 
A. J. W. Pierce Co., 305 Broadway, 

Fruits and Vegetables. 

J. Seefeld & Son, 283-285 Broadway, 

Foreign and Domestic Fruits. 

R. Stafford Co., 265 Broadway, 

Fruits, Produce, and Grocers' Specialties. 

Charles A. Schmidt & Co., 261-263 Broadway, 

Fruits and Produce. 

J. H. Wussow & Co., 269 Broadway, 

Fruits and Produce. 

MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. 

G. L. Bradley & Co., 21 and 22 Central Market, 

Butter, Eggs, Cheese, and Beans. 
Connery Fruit Company, 601 to 609 Second Avenue, N., 

Fruits, Nuts, Figs, Dates. 
Gamble-Robinson Commission Company, 224-226 Sixth 
Street, N., 

Fruits and Produce. 



APPENDIX 20 I 

Grinnell, Collins & Co., 212-214 Sixth Street, N., 

Fruits and Produce. 
Hillman Bros., 204-206 Sixth Street, N., . 

Fruits, Vegetables, Dairy Products. 
Longfellow Bros. & Co., 208 Sixth Street, N., 

Fruits, Foreign and Domestic. 
Porter Brothers Co., 228-230 Sixth Street. N., 

Foreign and Domestic Fruits. 
E. P. Stacy & Sons, 200-202 Sixth Street, N., 

Foreign and Domestic Fruits. 

MOBILE, ALA. 

Mertz, Ibach & Co., 4 N. Commerce Street, 

Fruit, Grain, Flour, Produce. 
Muscat & Lott, 64 S. Commerce Street, 

Fruit, Produce, Poultry, Eggs. 
Roh & Partridge, 58 N. Commerce Street, 

Fruit and Produce. 

NEW ORLEANS, LA. 

Bernard Antony & Co., 451 S. Peters Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 
Joseph A. Ball, 403-405 S. Peters Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 
Barbot & Stork, 217 Poydras, cor. Fulton Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 
Louis Darring, 319 Poydras Street, 

Fruits, Produce, and Vegetables. 
George W. Davidson & Co., 45-47 Poydras Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 
Stephen D'Amico, Poydras cor. Fulton Street, 

Foreign and Domestic Fruit. 

H. J. Laux & Co., 211 Poydras Street, 

Brokers and Commission Merchants. 

Philip Nagele, 49 Poydras Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 

Noble & Saulter, 407-409 S. Peters Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 

S. Oteri, 403 S. Front Street, 

Wholesale Fruit and Produce. 

Jos. Rittiner & Co., 321-323 Poydras Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 



202 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

Charles Roth, 201 Poydras Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 

Seessel, Ashner & Sugarman, 529-533 Poydras Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 

Segari & Meyer, 405 S. Peters Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 

A. Spano & Co., 207 Poydras Street, 

Fruits and Vegetables. 

NEW YORK 

J. H. Bahrenburg, Bro. & Co., 105 Murray Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 

Bennett & Hall, 161 West Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 

E. A. Brown, 306 Washington Street, 

Fruits, Vegetables, Poultry. Game, Eggs. 
R. W. Dixon & Son, 266 Washington Street, 

Fruits, Produce, Poultry, Game. 

S. B. Downes & Co., 203 Duane Street, 

Fruits and Produce, Dressed Poultry. 

Henry Elwell & Co., 310 Washington Street, 

Berries, Peaches, Produce. 

Charles Forster, 44 Harrison Street, 

Fruits and Vegetables. 

S. H. & E. H. Frost, 319 Washington, cor. Jay Street, 

Fruits and Vegetables. 

G. Furman & Co., West Washington Market, 

Fruits and Produce. 

Furman & Page, 112 Warren Street, 

Fruits, Vegetables, and Produce. 

William Gamble & Co., 185 Reade Street, 

Fruits and Vegetables, Butter, Eggs. 

J. H. Killough & Co., 157 and 158 West Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 

Austin Kimball & Co., 78 Park Place, 

Fruits and Vegetables. 

E. P. Loomis & Co., 95 Barclay Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 
McCormick, Hubbs & Co., 297 Washington Street, 

Foreign and Domestic Fruits. 

John Nix & Co., 281 Washington Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 



APPENDIX 203 

Phillips & Sons, 108 Murray, near Washington Street, 

Fruits, Produce, Poultry, Calves. 
P. Ruhlman & Co., 261 Washington Street, 

Foreign and Domestic Green Fruits. 
Schott & Franke, 280 Washington Street, 

Fruits and Vegetables. 
A. F. Young & Co., Duane, cor. Washington Street, 

Vegetables and Fruits. 

OMAHA, NEB. 

O. W. Butts, 801 to 811 Jones Street, 

California, Florida, and Tropical Fruits. 
G. W. Icken & Co., 1207 Howard Street, 

Fruits, Game and Produce. 
Perry, Bauer & Ennis, 1213 Howard Street, 

Butter, Eggs, Poultry, and Game. 

W. E. Riddell, 413 S. Eleventh Street, 

Butter, Eggs, and Poultry. 
H. G. Streight & Co., 1017 Howard Street, 

Fruits and Vegetables. 

PHILADELPHIA, PA. 

Barker & Co., 321-323 N. Front Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 
Brown & McMahon, 334 N. Front Street, 

Fruits and Vegetables. 
G. W. Butterworth, N. E. cor. Second and Dock Streets, 

Fruits and Vegetables. 
S. S. Darmon, 120 Spruce Street, 

Fruits, Produce, and Vegetables. 
J. D. Hendrickson, 302 N. Front Street, 

Apples, Potatoes, and Other Produce. 

C. G. Justice, 123 Dock Street, 

Fruits and Vegetables. 
W. H. Michael & Son, 114 Dock Street, 

Fruits and Vegetables. 
Roberts & Andrews, 129-131 Callowhill Street, 

Fruits and Vegetables. 
Edward Roberts, 226-228 N. Delaware Avenue, 

Fruits and Vegetables. 
R. A. Shetzline & Sons, i Vine Street, 

Fruits and Vegetables. 

William Smith & Co., 336 N. Front Street, 

Fruits, Vegetables, and Poultry. 



204 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

J. W. Thorn & Co., 325 N. Water Street, 

Apples, Potatoes, and Onions. 
William Weinert & Co., S. W. cor. Front and Vine Streets, 

Fruits and Produce. 

J. P. Wilson, 116 Dock Street, 

Fruits. Vegetables, Poultry, Eggs. 

E. S. Woodward, 122 Dock Street, 

Fruits and Vegetables. 

PITTSBURGH, PA. 

Ash & Baldwin, 937-939 Liberty Avenue, 

General Produce. 

Crutchfield & Woolfolk, 613 Liberty Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 

Dale & Cannon, 640 Grant Street, 

Fruits and Vegetables. 

Dennis Hayes, 646 Grant Street, 

Vegetables, Berries, etc. 

Iron City Produce Co., 623 Liberty Street. 

Foreign and Domestic Fruits. 

H. J. McCracken & Co., 644 Grant Street, 

General Produce. 

W. E. Osborne Co., 635 Liberty Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 

Seward & Kurts, 640 Grant Street, 

Foreign and Domestic Fruits. 

Albert M. Travis, 645 Liberty Avenue, 

Fruit and Produce Commission Merchant. 

John Wallace, 631 Liberty Street, 

Fruits and Vegetables, Eggs, Poultry. 

RICHMOND, VA. 

William Jenkins & Sons, 1311 E. Gary Street, 

Fruits and Vegetables. 

J. D. Mclntire & Co., 1320 Gary Street, 

Fruits and Vegetables. 

F. S. Padgett & Co., 1303 E. Gary Street, 

Butter, Eggs, and Poultry. 

John T. Powers, E. Gary Street, 

Fruits and Vegetables. 

W. F. Seymour, 1317 E. Gary Street, 

Butter, Fruit, and Vegetables. 



APPENDIX 205 

ST. LOUIS. MO. 

F. W. Brockman Commission Co., 805-809 N. Third Street, 

Eggs, Poultry, Butter. 
George G. Fairham & Bro., 918-920 N. Third Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 
Gerber Fruit Co., 910-912 N. Third Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 
Gunn Fruit Co., 938-940 N. Third Street, 

Foreign and Domestic Fruits. 
Haueisen Bros., 1017-1019 N. Third Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 
P. M. Kiely & Co., 914 N. Third Street, 

Fruits and Vegetables. 
Conrad Schopp & Co., Northwest cor. Franklin Ave., 

Fruits and Vegetables. 
George P. Schopp & Co., 721-723 N. Third Street, 

Fruits, Produce, and Vegetables. 
Shaw & Richmond, 829-831 W. Third Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 
Trescher & Miller, 922 N. Third Street. 

Game, Poultry, Eggs, Fruits, and Vegetables. 

ST. PAUL, MINN. 

R. E. Cobb, 31-33 E. Third Street. 

Fruits and Produce. 
Dore & Redpath, 70-72 E. Third Street, 

Foreign and Domestic Fruits, Produce. 
R. A. Durkee, 132 E. Third Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 
C. C. Emerson & Co., 26 E. Third Street, 

Fruits and Produce. 
J. W. Fillebrown, 114 E. Third Street, 

Fruits and Vegetables. 
John B. Hoxsie, 103 E. Third Street. 

Fruits and Produce. 

J. E. Mulrooney & Co., 79 E. Third Street, 

Foreign and Domestic Fruits. 
Minnesota Butter & Cheese Co., 61-63 E. Third Street, 

Butter and Cheese. 
B. Presley & Co., E. Third Street, 

Foreign and Domestic Fruits. 



2o6 FRUIT HARVKSTING, STORING, MARKETING 



VI. COMMISSION CHARGES 

The regular rate of commission for making retail 
sales of fruit, even when these fruits arrive in carload 
lots, is ten per cent. Large shippers, however, by 
making special agreement with commission houses, 
often get better rates. 

In the subjoined table, taken from the American 
Agriculturist Year Book, 1898, p. 482, the commission 
charges are given as actually made at various points, 
but they apply as a rule to relatively small lots. 

ACTUAL, COMMISSIONS CHARGED FOR HANDI^ING 



Apples 

Oranges 

Small Fruits . . . 
Dried Fruits . . . 

Potatoes 

Onions 

Fresh Vegetables. 

Butter 

Fggs 

Poultry 







.« 












•<< 




•5; 




1 

§ 


1 


>2 


a 
S 


1 


^ 


3 


% 


% 


% 


7c 


10 


8 


5@10 


8@10 


10 


10 


10 


8@10 


10 


10 


10 




5@10 


5@10 


5 


5@10 


10 


5@ 8 


7(d)Ai) 


10 


10 


8 


7@10 


10 


5@10 


5@ 8 


10 


10 


5 


5 


5 


10 


5 


5 


5 


10 


5 


5 


5 


10 



% 

10@15 
10 
10 
10 
5c. bu. 
10@15 
10 
5 
5 
5 





i«> 






^ 


§ 




^ 


s 


^ 


% 


% 


10 


5 


10 


10 


10 


10 


5 


5 


50.10 


5 


10 


5 


10 


10 


5 


5 


5 


5 


5 


5 



VII. SHIPMENT IN REFRIGERATOR CARS 

The following notes on the transportation of fruits 
in refrigerator cars are given in a recent number of 
Rural New Yorker (*'W. W. H.," in Rural New 
Yorker, 60 : 259, April 6, 1901): 

•* The use of cold storage in the transportation of fruits has 
increased greatly of late years, and we find a growing interest 
in this business from Canada to the south. Perishable 



APPENDIX 207 

products are thus put into distant markets, and the season 
during which they may be had by consumers is very much 
lengthened. Take strawberries, for example. Instead of 
having them in the New York market for three months, as 
would be the limit if we had to depend on what could be sent 
here without ice, they are on hand for eight months, although 
part of the time too expensive to be used by people of moder- 
ate means. Still, there are many who are willing to pay 
thirty to sixty cents per quart for strawberries in January. A 
few years ago the quantity received during the winter season 
was very limited, and these sometimes sold as high as $5 
per quart. 

"As soon as the growers found that the fruit, of which 
they could sell but a small quantity at home, could be sent to 
distant points so as to arrive in good condition and bring a 
price that would give fair pay for their time and labor, those 
who had been raising only garden patches branched out into 
acres, and from Florida and the Carolinas the output increases 
from now and then a scattered carload to dozens and scores. 
This put new life into sections of the south that had been 
practically dead, so far as outside trade was concerned; labor 
was in demand, farm property increased in value, and in many 
places these conditions still hold good. Of course, as always 
happens, there were some who went into this business too 
deeply on the start, and suffered severe loss. 

" The earliest strawberries come from Florida and Cali- 
fornia the latter part of December. At that season the quan- 
tity shipped is so small that no grower has a carload at any 
one time, so he uses the refrigerator chest. This is a heavy 
box made in various sizes from forty-eight to one hundred or 
more quarts. The first of these cases made were crude affairs. 
The berries got badly shaken in handling, and the water from 
the melting ice soaked them, so that they were in bad shape 
when opened. Improvements have been made to such an ex- 
tent now that the berries are not damaged at all, opening up 
in as fine condition as when packed. As cold naturally goes 
down instead of up, the ice is put in a tight galvanized iron 
tray in the top of the chest, and the cover shuts down closely 



2o8 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

upon this. As the ice melts the water drains from a hole in 
the pan into an iron pipe, through which it runs out of the 
bottom of the chest. As soon as there is enough fruit for car- 
load lots, refrigerator cars are used. In these the whole 
interior of the car is cooled, and the ice does not come in con- 
tact with the produce shipped. These have been long used 
for beef and other perishable foods." 

Cost of tra7isportatio7i. — In the same article some 
interesting figures are given showing the cost of 
shipping in the refrigerator cars. The statements are 
reHable, and I will quote them herewith. The writer 
says: 

" There is no doubt that the railroads get their full share 
of the profits out of all the stuff they carry to market for the 
farmer. The following facts in regard to expenses were 
obtained from a southern shipper. The charge made by the rail- 
road companies for hauling refrigerator cars from South Caro- 
lina points to New York and Philadelphia is f 1.25 per bushel 
crate, the minimum carload being one hundred crates. The 
express company furnishes the car, ice, etc. , and looks after the 
re-icing in transit at 25 cents per crate. This is in addition to 
the charge made by the railroad company. Figuring on the 
minimum rate of one hundred bushel crates, the transportation 
charge between the points named would be $25 for rent of car, 
ice, and re-icing on the way, and $125 to the railroad company 
for hauling, making $150 per car, or a trifle over 4^^ cents per 
quart. Of course this can be reduced by putting more crates 
in the car, but there is a danger in overloading, and it is 
considered that the berries arrive at their destination in far 
better shape where they are not crowded to the top of the 
car, and a little space is left between the crates. Refrigerator 
chests are made in various sizes. Those holding forty-eight 
quarts will weigh, iced, two hundred pounds; eighty quarts, 
three hundred pounds; one hundred quarts, three hundred and 
fifty pounds; and one hundred and forty quarts, five hundred 
pounds, and the transportation charge is 76 cents per one 



APPENDIX 209 

hundred pounds from South Carolina points to New York 
and Philadelphia. The shipper furnishes his own ice and 
must provide for icing on the way, the railroad assuming no 
responsibility for the giving out of the ice, provided their 
train is nearly on time. Taking all things into consideration, 
the shipment in the iced chests is the most expensive, and it is 
said that but few use them who have sufficient quantities of 
fruit to use the iced cars. However, these refrigerator boxes 
are of great value to small shippers, and they are coming into 
use more and more, not only for shipment from the south 
but from northern points. We have recently had letters from 
people in Canada who were making arrangements to use these 
chests in shipments to markets in the United States. One 
wished to know whether it would do to paint or oil the inside 
of the chest to make them impervious to moisture. We have 
not seen any on which this has been tried, and all the receivers 
with whom we have talked seem to think that it would not be 
a good plan, as anything so penetrating as oil would be likely 
to affect the berries, which are nearly equal to milk for 
absorbing odors. Lining the chest with heavy clean paper is 
a good plan. Some claim that shipments of berries in refrig- 
erator boxes have sold at higher prices than those sent at the 
same time to the same market in ordinary crates in iced cars, 
but we are not able to find any instances of this discrimination 
that can not be traced to the difference in quality of the 
berries. Probably the man who ships comparatively few and 
uses the box takes a little more care in grading than the one 
who sends a carload. This has been our observation in 
regard to the berries we have seen opened here." 

REFRIGERATOR CARS 

The following account of the use of refrigerator 
cars for shipping southern fruits is given by Prof. F. 
S. Earle (Ala. Exp. Sta. Bui. 79 : 106. March, 1897): 

" Refrigerator cars were first built for the meat trade. 
The meat was hung in cold storage houses, and was loaded 
into the cars at, or near, the freezing point. In a tight, well- 



2IO FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

built car such a cold load would warm up very slowly, and a 
small amount of ice served to carry it safely to its destination. 
When it was attempted to use these cars for fruit, the hot 
load, fresh from the fields, soon melted the limited ice supply, 
and the cars invariably arrived heated and in bad order. To 
use these cars successfully it was found necessary to build 
cooling houses at the shipping points, in which the fruit could 
be cooled off before loading, as in the case of the meat. This 
caused delay in getting the fruit on the market, and made 
much additional expense. It, however, demonstrated the 
success of refrigeration for the transportation of fruits; and 
soon cars were built especially for the fruit trade, with 
sufficient ice capacity to cool off a load of hot fruit in transit 
and to keep it cool. At the present time there are a number 
of refrigerator car lines, with specially built fruit cars, that 
are actively competing for the fruit and vegetable carrying 
trade, so that any point having sufficient business to offer 
can secure efficient car service, with competent men to look 
after the proper loading and icing of the cars. Each line, of 
course, claims to have the best cars, and for difficult service 
there would certainly be considerable choice between them, 
but with the numerous re-icing stations that are now avail- 
able, any of them will give satisfactory service, if properly 
loaded and handled. 

"The main points to consider in selecting a refrigerator 
car for transporting produce are, first, its ice capacity, and 
second, its insulation. The ice tanks should hold at least five 
tons of ice, and six tons is even better. The position of the 
tanks, whether overhead or at the ends, is a question of minor 
importance. The car should be tightly built, with double 
walls and roof, with the space between them filled in with 
some non-conducting material, or by numerous linings of 
building paper with dead air spaces between them. The 
doors should be built like the walls and be of the same thick- 
ness, and they should fit as nearly air-tight as possible. Of 
course the car should be sweet and clean. 

" It is usual for the refrigerator companies to furnish their 
own men for loading the cars, for proper loading is a point of 



APPENDIX 211 

so much importance that they do not care to trust the reputa- 
tion of their cars to inexperienced men. The important points 
to secure in loading are, first, that the packages be so spaced 
that the cold air has immediate access to all sides of them, 
and, second, that they be so secured that the load can not 
shift by the bumping of the cars while in transit. These points 
are usually secured by piling the crates, or other packages, 
one above another in tiers or ranks, from three to six inches 
apart, and with lath or strips between each layer. Strips are 
placed upright ,against the end of the car, and a row of 
packages is placed on the floor, with the ends set snugly 
against these strips and carefully spaced. Light half-inch 
strips, as long as the width of the car, are placed across the 
ends of the packages, and the front one is nailed down, with 
a light nail, to the head of each package to prevent side shift- 
ing. Another row of packages is placed on these strips, each 
one directly above one in the lower row. These are again 
stripped and nailed, and so on to the top. The next course is 
placed with the ends snugly against the ends of the first 
course, so that the air spaces are continuous. When the cen- 
ter of the car is reached, begin in the other end and load in 
the same way. A space will usually be left at the last, too 
narrow to admit another course of packages; and the car 
must now be braced to prevent the courses from shifting end- 
wise. Pieces of i x 6 inch board are set up against the ends 
of each rank of packages, and other strips are nailed across 
these uprights, near the bottom and the top of the car. The 
distance between these opposite cross-pieces is now carefully 
measured, and pieces of board are cut for braces about an 
inch longer than this space, so that they will have to be driven 
home with considerable force. The braces are toe-nailed in 
place, to prevent their falling, if they should chance to loosen 
in the bumping of the car. When thus loaded and braced, the 
contents are absolutely immovable, yet each package is sepa- 
rated from its neighbors, on all sides, by a layer of cold air, 
which, when it becomes warmed by the hot fruit, rises, and is 
carried by the currents thus generated to the ice, where it is 
quickly cooled again, and where it deposits the moisture that 



212 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

may have been taken up from fruit. This rapid circulation 
of the air is very important, and the ice, instead of making 
the fruit damp, as might at first be thought, really serves to 
dry it very effectually." 



VIII. THE APPLE CROP AND MARKET 

The following notes on the apple crop and market 
are taken from the American Agriculturist Year 
Book, 1898, p. 500. 

" Probably in no branch of agriculture have greater ad- 




FIG. 61 — APPLE DISTRICTS OF THE UNITED STATES 

vances been made than in fruit growing. Comparing the old 
days when 'book farmin' * was indifferently regarded, with 
to-day's progressive study of soil characteristics, fertilization, 
cultivation, and the use of insecticides and fungicides, marked 
changes have taken place. And nowhere more pronounced 
than in apple growing. The successful orchardist who raises 
apples for profit has long since left the ranks of those who 
pay little or no attention to the needed requisites indicated. 
On the other hand, he makes it a thorough business from the 
planting or grafting of the trees to the harvesting and mar- 
keting of the fruit. 

"While what is known as the commercial apple belt, pro- 
ducing the surplus crop for winter markets, has long been 



APPENDIX 213 

confined to a group of comparatively few states, marked prog- 
ress has been made in recent years, and new and highly 
promising orchard sections developed. The old time ' apple 
belt' includes New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, 
and Michigan. The newer orchard sections of increasing 
prominence and importance include the Ozark territory of 
southern Missouri and northern Arkansas, southwestern 
Iowa, eastern Nebraska, and Kansas, Colorado, and the Pa- 
cific coast, where some of the finest specimens are found. 
These states, together with isolated sections elsewhere, are 
giving intelligent attention to apple growing, where climate 
and soil are right. 

" In the distribution of the winter apple crop, the eastern 
states, Canada, and Michigan, have been, as a rule, largely 
drawn upon to make up deficiencies in the middle west and 
northwest. The crop of hard varieties suitable for winter use 
is deficient in some of the central states and in most of the 
southern. A general criticism applying to nearly all sections 
where temperatures are cool, is the fact that too much sum- 
mer and autumn fruit is produced, finding indifferent outlet, 
often at unremunerative prices. In the same line, there is 
still urgent need of more intelligent work among orchardists 
in the care of trees and in battling insect and fungus pests 
in order to secure perfect fruit. 

" In the absorption of the apple crop through consumptive 
channels, the first to disappear is autumn fruit, and inferior 
to common stock generally, the poorest going to the cider- 
mill, large quantities of better grade to evaporators. Prior to 
and following the harvest of winter varieties, there is inter- 
ested buying on the part of country shippers and city dealers, 
entire orchards often being contracted long before the begin- 
ning of autumn. Farmers and orchardists now so generally 
understand practicable methods of storing and keeping fruit 
at home, that an important part of the crop is so cared for, 
this depending upon market conditions. The remainder is 
barreled and put away for later use, much of it in ordinary 
storage, and enormous quantities in the aggregate in cold- 
storage plants in the large towns and cities, where equable 



214 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

temperatures just above the freezing-point are maintained. 
Fruit can thus be kept almost indefinitely, and if properly se- 
lected and packed at the beginning of the season, will emerge 
from the warehouse late in the winter or early spring in prac- 
tically perfect condition. The generally recognized standards 
of winter apples include such varieties as Baldwin, Greening, 
Northern Spy, Spitzenburg, and Russet. Among other popu- 
lar and good selling apples in their season may be placed 
King, Pippin, Bellflower, Gravenstein, Jeniton, and Winesap. 

" The export trade in winter apples has in recent years 
assumed such proportions as to be eminently important in the 
final distribution of the crop, and highly encouraging, mean- 
ing, as it does, a very liberal outlet to foreign countries. The 
quantity of apples that can be thus shipped depends very 
largely upon the home crop and prices, and supplies of fruit 
abroad. When our crop is short and prices high, exports are 
restricted; on the other hand, during a recent season the 
United States and Canada together shipped 3,000,000 barrels 
apples, the bulk of these going to the United Kingdom, but 
an important part to northern Europe. One of the encoura- 
ging features of the situation is the growing demand latterly 
for apples, both fresh and evaporated, for Germany, Belgium, 
France, and even Austria. Almost all the apples exported 
are in barrels, but experiments are being made in shipping in 
boxes; in fact, a considerable business in the latter is done 
each year on the Pacific coast, the Oriental trade favoring 
California, Oregon, and Washington apples packed in boxes. 

"Among the best sellers in the foreign countries are 
King and Newtown Pippin, although the bulk of apples sent 
abroad comprise such standbys as Baldwin, Spy, Greening, 
and Russet. Indiscriminate packing and shipping is a mis- 
take too often niade in exporting. It should be remembered 
that foreign buyers demand sound fruit well selected and 
properly packed; nothing else should be shipped abroad. 
Ocean freights on apples, Boston or New York to Liverpool, 
are usually 40 cents to 70 cents per barrel. Selling charges in 
Liverpool are close to 15 cents, this including dockage, town 
dues, insurance, advertising, sampling, and labor in handling. 



APPENDIX 2 1 5 

In addition is the 5 per cent commission on sales. Suppose, 
for example, a parcel of 100 barrels Baldwin, well packed, 
sells at 16 shillings per barrel, equal to about $3.85; 5 per cent 
commission on this would be 19 cents, to which may be added 
the 15 cents, total about 34 cents, this representing charges 
for selling a barrel of apples after reaching Liverpool. As a 
rule, apples landing at English markets are sold at auction, 
and quick disposition is made of the entire shipload, the fruit 
going in lots of 20 barrels and upward. Great Britain always 
has a small to moderate crop of apples; also imports fair 
quantities from northern Europe during the autumn, and in 
early spring Australia sends some apples to the mother coun- 
try. But in the main, the chief dependence is on the United 
States and Canada, which ship freely during the winter 
season, or from October to March inclusive. Ocean freights 
on apples, Boston or New York to Hamburg, the leading 
German market, are usually 70 cents to 75 cents per barrel, 
occasionally as low as 60 cents. The ocean freight on evap- 
orated apples has declined recently to the level of 15 cents to 
20 cents per 100 pounds to both Hamburg and Bremen. 

" Enormous quantities of dried apples, largely in the 
evaporated form, are each year shipped to foreign countries, 
doing much to relieve the home markets. This class of busi- 
ness has never been on a firmer footing than now, those en- 
gaged in the trade catering in an intelligent manner to foreign 
requirements. Last year's exports were unprecedented at 
nearly 31,000,000 pounds. This was made possible by the 
low prices of fresh fruit from which the product was made, 
and the excellent reputation the goods enjoyed. The magni- 
tude of the business is governed largely, but not wholly, by 
domestic prices, and when these are low exports are greatly 
stimulated. A large part of the goods shipped are dried on 
wood rather than zinc frames, this being a requisite in secur- 
ing recognition in some of the European markets, notably 
that of Germany. After the empire just named, the Nether- 
lands, France, Belgium, and the United Kingdom are our 
best customers, with, of course, more or less fruit going from 
Pacific coast ports to the Orient and southern hemisphere." 



< 

< > 
^ w 

P< iz; 
W 






(m' -^ «d «n CO (W «5 ■* c^ CO TT c-j CO -T TT Tj< 

. (i)®® @(g)©(§)(@©(i){i)(g(i)(§)©@ 

(N lo S in lO J.- o lO 1-- ic o 1-; iq £- c< lO 
i-<,-ii?jcoi-<' ' <7ioi ' T^ ci T^ oi iTi ai tA 



mcOint-otni^ooiqinoinoSi-^o 
■>* i-H CO o* -^ CO th ■» ■^' (tJ Tji ?d cj ei CO CO ■*' 

(i)(g;®(i)(t(§)(i)@(§)(i(§)(§)(i)©(i)©(i) 

000>OiOO»OOQ»n»OOl^'0 000 

ooin(?Ji-»o(?joO(>Js^ocoi-ooo 
o6i-^TH(?ico(W'-I<iioiT-<'-<i?ii-!'-'coi?i<?i 



Tri-n-iOlCJOjT-iinTfCOiI^CiC^i-iCOCOT}* 

(i)®©@(D(i:©(i)@(g)©©@(i)@(§)(§) 

inoooooooooooooooo 
i-0»o»ooiO(rjOinoi-iiooo(Nioo 



Q 

"a 



W 



SJA04X3 
JVJO} ,SAV3A 



nioSsvif) 



itopuoj 



loo4-i3n'i'j 



xvfiiVH 



oioiiracoi-oioioi-oooGooQoocboJ 
ioo5i:~Tf"i-iOJTj<Trffi)-<*«3Qoao£> cocJeo 



oocoeoooi-cT^inoosoTfT-i ,co .»o 



lOcoeoooi-cT^inoosoTf 



i-li-lGOCOOSi-iCOi-IWC 



T-H^'Til-COWGoSi-H^Tl-COt-OOCoSlOi-l 
i-itJ>i-it-i WITJ i-HCsJrHi-irH,-! (M 



t^t-.«3aico-^Tt<j>Q0O5-^Q0i-eo»r5i~:oao 
05 <-H oi CO CO I- (?< 1-1 OJ i- o 'X Tt" (?« -^ Tt> I- 

t-i-iOO ,-.Oil-HrH(^f,-(,-(,-(r-l 1-1 



QO'r?i-ICOi-lGOCO'rjCTlOJ>CRQOC^t~CO'<JIO 

)THjoppvTHioi:H05-^^cooii*iracoco 



I QO 1-1 l^ 05 (N Tf J 



■i-l»J':DOiOCOQCQOlOi-lCCi-lOf^OO 
VtlVIJAOrf .(?J-^iniOCO^OOOJ-*C^OaOt-.i-iiH -^ 



2v?.i)uoi]! -isi^iiisi^s^^^^^s 



UOfSOff 



^AOy{ (11?]S[ 



P< l-H 

So 



»nTiHOOio-^Ocococf-ii't»?i>i>(?jiCO 

.:HGOr>i Or^cr^COQOtDciwO 0!0i-l 

o in oj CO 1-1 CO T-i CO (Tj CO 1-1 lo 



•Oi-ii-i05QOs>i-oin«o«oo«5eoooe!i 
. I- CO (M 0^ 1-1 CO i- {- {- 1- i- '-D m in i- i- cs 

in(Nw (Min i-iTf'Ni-'. TfO' 1-1 in 



opi>-«Din-<tcoc*i-iosc5QOi^«oinrt<cos*i-H 
i>'ariiftT)<co(>{i-ioo5Qot^oinTfoos>jT-io 

OSOlgJOSSOSOCTiOOCOQOOOaOQOQOQOCOQO 
QOQCOOGOQOOOOOOOaOOOQOQOODQOQOODQOQO 



2l6 



APPENDIX 217 

EXPORTS— DRIED AFFILES FROM UNITED STATES 



YEAR ENDED JUNE 30 


Pounds 


Total value 


Average value 


1897 

1896 

1895 


30,883,921 

26,691,963 

7,085,946 

2,846,645 

7,996,819 

26,042,063 

6,973,168 

20,861.462 

22,102,579 

11,803,161 

8,130,396 

10,473,183 

18,416,573 


$1,356,578 

1,340,507 

461,214 

168,054 

482,085 

1.288,102 

409,605 

1,038,682 

1,201,070 

812,682 

413,363 

548,434 

1,062,859 


4.39c. 
5.02 
6 50 


1894 

1893 

1892 

1891 

1890 

1889 


5.90 
6.02 
4.57 
5.87 
4.98 
5.43 


1888 


7.73 


1887 

1886 


5.08 
5.23 


1885 


5.77 







IX. THE CRANBERRY CROP 

The following facts and figures concerning the cran- 
berry crop are taken from the American Agricul- 
turist Year Book, 1898 : 513. 

"Cranberries are grown extensively in but two states, 
although a few others devote some attention to the crop prac- 
tically and experimentally. Probably nine-tenths of the cran- 
berries found in the markets are produced in New Jersey and 
eastern Massachusetts, notably Cape Cod. Wisconsin was 
quite a producer some time ago, but in recent years the crops 
have been small, as the bogs were greatly damaged or 
destroyed by fires. A few cranberries are grown in Con- 
necticut, Maine, New York, and Michigan, and portions of the 
Pacific northwest have for several years been experimenting 
with this crop. Canada produces some cranberries, and 
would market a good many more were conditions favorable. 
The cranberry thrives best on a natural black peat or muck 
bottom, where plenty of sand is available, and a requisite is a 
liberal supply of running water. 

" The establishment of a cranberry bog requires a large 



21 8 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

expenditure of labor and money, and even then the business 
is hazardous unless thoroughly understood and cared for. 
The question of drainage is a highly important one. Cran- 
berry vines are flooded in the fall, beginning in October, and 
this is continued as late as May, when the water is drawn off. 
This furnishes protection from frosts, and in some degree 
from insect pests. Blossoms appear in June, and with an 
ample supply of moisture the fruit ripens in September and 
October. The cranberry frequently suffers both in fruit and 
vine from the ravages of insects, and the crop is also subject 
to damage through fungus diseases and drought. Upon 
being harvested the fruit is carefully cleaned, screened, and 
assorted, due attention being given to the process of ripening 
or coloring previous to placing in barrels and crates. Cold 
storage for keeping cranberries during early autumn is not 
generally favored; successful growers prefer to store the fruit 
in a cool, dry bog house or cellar, disposing of it before cold 
weather sets in. In the states where mostly grown, law 
governs the size of package. In Massachusetts, New Jersey, 
and Wisconsin the crate must hold one bushel, or thirty-two 
quarts dry measure. New Jersey law provides that the 
standard crate shall be 73^ x I2 x 22 inches, capacity igSo 
cubic inches, with the barrel three times a crate, or containing 
ninety-six quarts. The Massachusetts barrel is one hundred 
quarts; efforts were made in a recent legislature to reduce this 
to ninety-six quarts. 

" The cranberry crop is practically all consumed at home. 
Commendable efforts were made a few years ago, mostly by 
New Jersey growers, to build up an export trade, but nothing 
of consequence has ever been accomplished. A special agent 
spent several months in England teaching best methods of 
cooking and serving the fruit, and creating a favorable 
impression, yet cranberries are still regarded in the light of a 
novelty abroad, an occasional season showing perhaps five 
thousand bushels exported from this country. Under the 
Dingley law an ad valoron duty of 25 per cent has been placed 
upon foreign cranberries, which will serve to shut out possible 
shipments from Canada. 



APPENDIX 219 

" Comparatively few sizable bogs have come into bearing 
the last year or two, crop and market conditions not favorable 
to any rapid extension, although enough new territory is being 
developed to probably more than offset loss in other direc- 
tions. The west, notably Wisconsin and Michigan, are show- 
ing renewed interest in cranberry growing, yet they furnish 
only a small percentage of total supply. The Wisconsin cran- 
berry section is confined to the neighborhood of Greenlake 
and Wood counties, and eastward to Green Bay and Lake 
Michigan. The heavy counties in Massachusetts are Plym- 
outh and Barnstable, with considerable attention given the 
industry in Middlesex, Norfolk, and Bristol counties. Rhode 
Island and Connecticut raise a few cranberries, and there is a 
small acreage across the Sound in Long Island. The Massa- 
chusetts state census for 1895, issued at the close of 1897. 
points to a remarkable increase in the production of cran- 
berries in Plymouth County, placing the yield at 104,192 
barrels against only 14,308 ten years earlier, in 1885. The 
Massachusetts crop of 1895 is reported at 169,583 barrels, with 
a value of $1,038,712. The leading counties of New Jersey 
are Burlington, Atlantic, Ocean, Monmouth, and Camden, 
although a number of others turn off a good many berries in 
the aggregate. 

" An average crop of cranberries is about 600,000 bushels, 
more than half of this being found in New England, and most 
of the remainder in New Jersey. The crop of 1897 was short 
and one of the smallest in years, approximating 425,000 
bushels against 560,000 in 1896 and 640,000 bushels in 1895. 
The weather in the spring of 1897 was unfavorable, the crop 
developed poorly, and was eventually damaged by blight, 
scald, and insects. Prices one year with another are governed 
to some extent by the supply of other fruit, notably apples. 
A short crop of the latter in 1897 stimulated the demand for 
cranberries; the enormous apple yield of 1896, with attendant 
phenomenally low prices, hurt the sale of the acid fruit that 
year. Extended missionary work is still necessary before 
American consumers will regard cranberries as a staple article 
of food rather than a luxury." 



220 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 
CRANBERRY CROPS AND MARKETvS BY YEARS 













BOSTON PRICE PER 


s 




CROP IN 


BUSHELS 






BUSHEL 




New 
England 


Neiv 
Jersey 


West 


Total 


Oct. 


Jan. 


May 


1897 


256,000 


120,000 


50,000 


415,000 


$2.00 


$2.50 




1896 


380,000 


130,000 


50,000 


560,000 


1.75 


1.35 


$1.00 


1895 


420,000 


210,000 


10,000 


640,000 


2.50 


2.00 


2.50 


*1894 


185,000 


200,000 


25,000 


410,000 


2.50 


3.00 


0.75 


1893 


575,000 


325,000 


100,000 


1,000,000 


1.50 


2.50 


3.00 


1892 


375,000 


160,000 


65,002 


600,000 


1.50 


2.25 


3.00 


1891 


480,000 


250,000 


30,000 


760,000 


2.00 


2.25 


2.00 


1890 


375,000 


200,000 


225,000 


800,000 


2.25 


3.00 


3.50 


1889 


350,000 


200,000 


70,000 


620,000 


2.00 


3.00 


5.00 


1888 


260,000 


225,000 


100,000 


585,000 


2.00 


2.25 


1.00 


1887 


306,000 


164,000 


141,000 


611,000 


2.00 


3.00 


3 00 


1886 


275,000 


234,000 


31,000 


540,000 


1.50 


2.75 


4.00 


1885 


280,879 


198.125 


264,432 


743,436 


1.70 


1.40 


0.75 


1884 


130,583 


124,648 


24,783 


280,014 


3.00 


4.75 


2.75 


1883 


141,964 


118,524 


135,507 


395,995 


3.00 


3.75 


5 50 


1882 


193,664 


78,507 


50,000 


322,171 


3.00 


4.50 


3.50 


1881 


160,825 


157,014 


143,186 


461,025 


2.00 


4.00 


3.00 


1880 


250,500 


128,700 


113,430 


492,630 


2.00 


2.00 


1.00 



* Figures for 1894 and earlier years from annual reports American 
Cranberry Growers' Association. 



X. HANDIvING SOUTHERN GRAPES 

Prof. F. S. Earle makes the following remarks on 
the question of picking and packing grapes at the 
south (Alabama Experiment Station Bulletin no : 
75, December, 1900). 

' ' Southern grown grapes are more perishable than the same 
kind grown at the north, because they ripen during the heat 
of midsummer. For this reason marketing must be expedited 
in all possible ways. Only a few hours can be allowed for 
wilting. Those picked in the morning should be packed in 
the afternoon, and those picked in the afternoon packed early 
the following morning, and when packed they should be rushed 
into refrigerator cars as rapidly as possible. Prices for 



APPENDIX 221 

southern grapes are too low at present to justify express ship- 
ments, and the business can only be permanently successful at 
those points where enough are grown to load refrigerator 
cars. 

" Grapes are best gathered in flat wooden trays or boxes. 
Twenty by thirty inches by six inches deep is a convenient 
size. The bunches are cut from the vines with clippers made 
for the purpose or with a sharp knife, and are placed carefully, 
two layers deep, in these boxes. When full they may be 
hauled to the packing house on a spring wagon. The two lay- 
ers of clusters will not fill them quite full, so they may be 
safely piled one on top of another in hauling. At the packing 
house they should be stacked up in an open, well-ventilated 
space, and should be crossed in piling so that the ends of each 
box are freely exposed to the air. In a few hours the stems 
will have wilted a little so that they will settle together limply. 
They are now ready for packing. The CJimax basket is more 
used than any other package for grapes, and, everything con- 
sidered, it is probably the best. It is an oblong basket with 
aboard bottom, solid veneer sides, a solid veneer cover, and a 
wooden hoop handle. The usual sizes hold about five and 
eight pounds." 



INDEX 



PAGE 

Accounts sales lo 

Advertising 24 

Allen, Mrs., storage house .... 144 

Alwood, W. B., storage house . . 131 

American fruit package 73 

Apple barrel 74 

Apple crop and market 212 

Apples in boxes 83 

Apples, packing 67 

Apples, picking 45. 4^ 

Apple .shippers' rules 187 

Apples stored in pits 120 

Apricots, picking 44 

Barrel presses 69 

Barrel, standard 186 

Beach, S. A., on apple storage . . 141 

Berry package 77 

Blackberries, picking 43. 46 

Boxes for apples 83 

Brooks Bros', storage house ... 148 

Burton, J. A., storage house . . 149 

Canadian apple exports 175 

Canadian fruit house 128 

Canadian fruit marks act .... 183 

Canadian fruit-package law ... 182 

Canadian fruit shipments .... 13 

Canning 38 

'Caves" for storage 121 

Check for pickers 53 

Cherries, picking 44, 46 

Cider making 40 

Coburn, W. S., storage house . . 147 

Commission charges 206 

Commission men 8 

Commission merchants 189 

Cooperative marketing 17 

Competition 5 

Competition, inversion of ... . 21 

Cost of cold storage 99 

Cranberries 217 

Crates for fruits 87 



PAGE 

Culls, use of 63 

Currants, picking 43, 46 

Daybook for pickers 52 

Delaware fruit-package law . . . 180 

Delaware peach basket 81 

Distrust among fruit shippers . . 20 

Drying fruit 32 

"Dugouts" for storage 121 

Exports of apples 216 

Exports of apples, Canadian ... 175 

Exports of dried apples 217 

Exports of fruit, U. S 171 

Evaporating fruit 32 

Faville-Hall storage house .... loi 
Ferris, Dean, on storing vege- 
tables 115 

Filling the package 67 

First-grade fruit 61 

Fisk, J. M., storage house .... 128 

Foreign market 12 

Fruit market i 

Fruit-package laws 176 

Gooseberries, picking 43, 46 

Grades of fruit 63 

Grading fruit 59 

Grape basket 79 

Grapes, picking 44. 48 

Grapes, sorting 60 

Grapes, southern 220 

Grape storage 112 

Growing fruit 7 

Hale's package label 90 

Handling fruit for storage . . 96-109 

Hill, A. H., packing shed .... 153 

Hill, A. H., storage house .... 165 

Hill, H. H., storage house .... 148 

Hillside storage 157 

Home market 22 

Ice refrigeration 99 

Imports of fruits, U. S 171 

Improvised storage 148 

223 



224 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 



PAGE 

Judgment in grading 66 

Keeping quality 112 

Kinney, T. I,., storage house . . . 123 

I,adders for picking 50 

I,aws regarding fruit packages . 176 

I,ean-to storage 154 

Managing pickers 52 

Margin of profit 5 

Market problems 6 

Marks on packages 89 

Massachusetts berry -basket law . 179 

McClelland, J. vS., storage house . 147 

Mechanical graders 67 

Mechanical pickers 49 

Mechanical refrigeration .... 98 

Michigan peach basket 81 

Missouri apple barrel law .... 181 

Moore, Trevor, on grape storage 113 

Morris, O. M., on storage in pits . 119 
National I,eague Commission 

Merchants 189 

New Jersey peach basket law . . 180 
New York apple, pear, quince, 

and potato barrel law .... 178 
New York small-fruit package 

law 177 

Nova Scotia apple barrel .... 75 

Nova Scotia apple house 138 

Ontario storage house 148 

Orchard wagons 50 

Over-production of fruit 25 

Package laws 176 

Packages 73 

Packages, filling 67 

Packages, general summary ... 88 

Packing fruit 59 

Paper headings for barrels ... 76 

Peach packages 80 

Peaches, packing 69 

Peaches, picking 44, 46 

Picking 43 

Picking for storage 96 

Picking machines 49 

Picking receptacles 46 

Picking tools 48 

Pits for storage 117 

Plums, packing 70 



PAGE 

Plums, picking 44, 46 

Pools 17 

Prices, philosophy of 25 

Production and price 25-27 

Production of fruits, Massa- 
chusetts 3 

Production of fruits, U. S 2 

Prunes, California 172 

Punch-card for pickers 53 

Quality in fruits 6 

Raspberries, picking 43, 46 

Refrigerator cars 207, 209 

Requirements for storage .... 95 

Sears, F. C, on apple storage . . 138 

Season of fruits 30 

vSelling associations 17 

Shepherd's apple box 84 

Six-ba.sket carrier 82 

"Slacks" 16 

Smith, J. S., grape storage .... 114 

Sorting tables 65 

Spraying recommended 188 

vStems on or off 47 

vStorage of fruit 95 

.Strawberries, picking 43, 46 

Supply and demand 26 

Supply, conditions affecting ... 27 

Systems of storage 97 

Temperatures in storage .... no 

Thousand-barrel storage house . 162 

Transportation 8, 18, 27, 187 

Utilization of wastes 31 

Vegetables, storage of 115 

Ventilation system of storage . . 106 

Ventilators, arrangement of . . . 107 

Wagons for fruit 50 

"Wall structure for storage house, 

125, 140 

"Wastes, utilization of 31 

"West Virginia storage houses . . 150 
"Wholesale and retail markets 

contrasted 4 

"Wilson, T. B., storage hou.se . . 141 

"Wine making 40 

"Woolverton's apple box 85 

"Wrapping fruits 89 

"Wright and Sons' refrigeration . 103 



STANDARD BOOKS 

..PUBLISHED BY.. 

ORANGE JUDD COMPANY 

NEW YORK CHICAGO 

^2 & 5^ Lafayette Place Marquette Building 



J^OOKS sent to alt parts of the world for catalog 
price. Discounts for large quantities on appli- 
cation. Correspo7idence invited. Brief descriptive 
catalog free. Large illustrated catalog, six cents : : : 



RECENT BOOKS BY THOMAS SHAW 

Professor of Animal Husbandry at the University of Minnesota, 
formerly Professor of Agriculture at the Ontario Agricultural College. 

Animal Breeding 

T-he most complete and comprehensive work ever published on the 
subject of which it treats, and the first book of the kind ever given to 
the world which has systematized the subject of animal breeding. 
The striking originality in the treatment of the subject is no less con- 
spicuous than the superb order and regular sequence of thought from 
the beginning to the end of the book. Illustrated. 5x8 inches, 13 
full-page plates, about 400 pages. $1.50. 

The Study of Breeds 

Origin, history, distribution, characteristics, adaptability, uses, and 
standards of excellence of all the pedigreed breeds of cattle, sheep, 
and swine in America. The accepted text-book in colleges, and the 
authority for farmers and breeders. 387 pages, 5x8 inches, 60 full- 
page plates. $1.50- 

Forage Crops Other than Grasses 

How to cultivate, harvest, and use them. Indian corn, sorghum, 
clover, leguminous plants, crops of the brassica genus, the cereals, 
millet, field roots, etc. Intensely practical and reliable. 295 pages. 
Illustrated. 5 x 8 inches. |i.oo. 

Soiling Crops and the Silo 

The growing and feeding of all kinds of soiling crops, conditions to 
which they are adapted, their plan in the rotation, etc. Best methods 
of building the silo, filling it, and feeding ensilage. Illustrated. 
5x8 inches, 378 pages. I1.50. 



Swine Husbandry 

By F. D. CoBURN. New, revised, and enlarged editition. A practical 
manual for the breeding, rearing, and management of swine, and the 
prevention and treatment of their diseases. In preparing this work 
it has been the object of the author to condense in one volume, from 
all available sources, the ideas and conclusions of the most practical, 
successful, and observant men who have followed the business in our 
time, and in our own country, acting upon the belief that no one 
man, or any half-dozen men, "know all there is worth knowing on a 
subject so extensive and important as that of Swine Husbandry. It 
is the fullest and freshest compendium relating to swine breeding yet 
offered. Cloth, i2mo. Illustrated. $1.50. 

Home Pork Making 

The art of raising and curing pork on the farm. By A. W. Fulton. 
A complete guide for the farmer, the country butcher, and the 
suburban dweller, in all that pertains to hog slaughtering, curing, 
preserving, and storing pork product— from scalding vat to kitchen 
table and dining-room. Fully illustrated. Cloth. 50 cents. 

Shepherd's Manual 

By Henry Stewart. A practical treatise on the sheep for Ameri- 
can farmers and sheep-growers. The results of personal experience 
of many years with the characters of the various modern breeds of 
sheep, and the sheep-raising capabilities of the United States and 
Canada— and the careful study of the diseases to which our sheep are 
chiefly subject, with tho.se by which they may eventually be afflicted 
through unforeseen accidents— as well as the methods of management 
called for under our circumstances, are here gathered. Illustrated. 
Cloth, i2mo. $1.00. 

Cabbage, Cauliflower, and Allied Vegetables 

By C. 1,. Allen. A practical and reliable guide to the successful 
raising of cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, collards, Brussels sprouts, 
kale, and kohlrabi, from " seed to harvest." Illustrated. 5x8 inches, 
128 pages. Cloth. 50 cents. 

Hedges, Windbreaks, Shelters, and Live Fences 

By E. P. Powell. The planting, growth, and management of hedge 
plants for country and suburban homes. Illustrated. 5x8 inches, 
140 pages. Cloth. 50 cents. 

Landscape Gardening 

By F. A. Waugh. A treatise on the general principles governing 
outdoor art, with sundry suggestions for their application in the 
commoner problems of gardening. Illustrated. 5x8 inches, 150 pages. 
Cloth. 50 cents. 

Plums and Plum Culture 

By Prof. F. A. Waugh. A complete manual for fruit-growers, 
nurserymen, farmers, and gardners, on all known varieties of plums 
and their successful management. A monograph of the plums culti- 
vated in and indigenous to North America, with a complete account 
of their propagation, cultivation, and utilization. It is one of the 
most complete, accurate, and satisfactory works ever written for the 
field of American horticulture. Illustrated. 5x8 inches, 371 pages. 
Cloth. $1.50. 

Hemp {Cannabis sativa) 

By S. S. Boyce. a practical treatise on the culture of hemp for seed 
and fiber, with a sketch of the history and nature of the hemp plant. 
All the various operations connected with hemp culture are so plainly 
and clearly described as to enable anyone to make a success of hemp- 
raising. Illustrated. 5 x 8 inches, 122 pages. Cloth. 50 cents. 



Irrigation Farming 

^Iti^'^^ ^^^^^"^A f- handbook for the practical application of 
water in the production of crops. A complete treatise on water 
supply, canal construction, reservoirs and ponds, pipes for irriffltion 
L^H^n'^'f fi"i"r' ^"^ ^^.^^^ structure, methods of applying wate?S 
gat ion of field crops, the garden, the orchard and vineyard- wind- 
mills and pumps, appliances and contrivances. Illustrated. Cloth. 

^ X. o lIlCllCS, $'^'S0, 

The New Rhubarb Culture 

?^^fi^i,?^'^ u^"" ^"^^r.?- ?• ^'^^^- ^ complete guide to dark forcing 
"cents ''"^^"'■^- Illustrated. 5 x 8 inches, abSut 112 pages. Cloth 

The New Egg Farm 

^L^- "^ Stoddard. A practical, reliable manual upon producing 
eggs and poultry for market as a profitable business enterprise 
either by itself or connected with other branches of agriculture It 
tells all about how to feed and manage, how to breld and select 
incubators and brooders, labor-saving devices, etc., etc i2mo ^^i 
pages. 140 original illustrations. Cloth. $1.00. " ^''' -^^' 

Turkeys and How to Grow Them 

Edited by Herbert Myrick. A treati.se on the natural history and 
origin of the name of turkey ; the various breeds, the best methods 
to insure success in the business of turkey growing, with essays 
from practical turkey-growers in different parts of the United States 
and Canada. Illustrated. Cloth, i2mo. $100. oiaicb 

Tobacco Leaf 

By J B. KiLLEBREw and Herbert Myrick. Its culture and cure 
marketing and manufacture. A practical handbook on the most 
approved methods in growing, harx-esting, curing, packing and 
selling tobacco, with an account of the operations in every depart- 
ment of tobacco manufacture. Upwards of 500 pages and i so original 
engravings. |2.oo. ^ f e, o^yjii^iuai 

Handbook of the Turf 

By Samuel I,. Boardman. A treasury of information for horsemen 
embracing a compendium of all racing and trotting rules: laws of 
the states in their relation to horses and racing; a glossary of scien- 
tifac terms; the catchwords and phrases used by great drivers with 
miscellaneous information about hor.ses, tracks, and racins- Cloth 
i2ino. Ii.oo. ^" ^^^'■"^ 

American Grape-Growing and Wine-Making 

By George Husmann. New and enlarged edition. With contribu- 
tions from well-known grape-growers, giving wide ranee of exoeri- 
ence. Illustrated. 5x8 inches, 277 pages. Cloth. $1.50. 

The Fruit Garden 

By P. Barry. A standard work on fruit and fruit trees, the author 
r ^IV'^ .^^^ °^'^^ thirty years' practical experience at the head of one 
of the largest nurseries in this country. Invaluable to all fruit 
growers. lUustrated. Cloth, i2mo. $1.50. 

Small Fruit Culturist 

By Andrew S. Fuller. The book covers the whole ground of 
propagating small fruits, their culture, varieties, packing for market 
etc. Illustrated. 5x8 inches. Cloth. $1.00. 

Gardening for Profit 

By Peter Henderson. The standard work on market and family 
gardening. The .succe.s.sful experience of the author for more than 
thirty years, and his willingness to tell, as he does in this work the 
secret of his success for the benefit of others, enables him to give 
most valuable information. The book is profusely illustrated Cloth 
i2mo. $1.50. ' 



Market Gardening and Farm Notes. 

By Burnett IvANURETH. Experiences and observation for both 
North and South, of interest to the amateur gardener, trucker and 
farmer. A novel feature of the book is the calendar of farm and 
garden operations for each month of the year; the chapters on fertil- 
izers, transplanting, succession and rotation of crops, the packing, 
shipping, and marketing of vegetables will be especially useful to 
market gardeners. Cloth, i2mo. |i.oo. 

The Nut Culturist. 

By Andrew S. Fuller. A treatise on the propagation, planting 
and cultivation of nut-bearing trees and shrubs adapted to the cli- 
mate of the United States, with the scientific and common names of 
the fruits known in commerce as edible or otherwise useful nuts. 
Intended to aid the farmer to increase his income without adding to 
his expenses or labor. Cloth, i2mo. $1.50. 

Greenhouse Management. 

By ly. R. Taft. This book forms an almost indispensable compan- 
ion volume to "Greenhouse Construction." In it the author gives 
the results of his many years' experience, together with that or the 
most successful florists and gardeners, in the management of grow- 
ing plants under glass. So minute and practical are the various 
systems and methods of growing and forcing roses, violets, carna- 
tions, and all the most important florists' plants, as well as fruits 
and vegetables described, that by a careful study of this work and 
the following of its teachings, failure is almost impossible. Illus- 
trated. Cloth, i2rao. $1.50. 

Bulbs and Tuberous-Rooted Plants. 

By C. ly. Allen. A complete history, description, methods of prop- 
agation and full directions for the successful culture of bulbs in the 
garden, dwelling or greenhouse. The illustrations which embellish 
this work have been drawn from nature, and have been engraved 
especially for this book. The cultural directions are plainly stated, 
practical and to the point. Cloth, i2mo. I1.50. 

Ornamental Gardening for Americans. 

By Elias a. lyONG, landscape architect. A treatise on beautifying 
homes, rural districts and cemeteries. A plain and practical work, 
with numerous illustrations and instructions so plain that they may 
be readily followed. Illustrated. Cloth, i2mo. $1.50. 

The American Merino. For Wool or for Mutton. 

By Stephen Powers. A practical and most valuable work on the 
selection, care, breeding, and diseases of the Merino sheep, in all sec- 
tions of the United States. It is a full and exhaustive treatise upon 
this one breed of sheep. Cloth, i2mo. $1.50. 

The Hop — Its Culture and Care, Marketing and Manufac- 
ture. 

By Herbert Myrick. A practical handbook on the most approved 
methods in growing, harvesting, curing and .selling hops, and on the 
use and manufacture of hops. The result of years of research and 
observation, it is a volume destined to be an authority on this crop 
for many years to come. It takes up every detail from preparing the 
soil and laying out the yard, to curing and selling the crop. Every 
line represents the ripest judgment and experience of experts. vSize, 
5x8; pages, 300; illustrations, nearly 150; bound in cloth and gold; 
price I1.50, postpaid. 



Ginseng — Its Cultivation, Harvesting, Marketing, and Mar- 
ket Value. 

By Maurice G. Kains, with a short account of its history and bot- 
any. It discusses in a practical way how to begin with either seed or 
roots, soil, climate and location, preparation, planting and mainte- 
nance of the beds, artificial propagation, manures, enemies, selection 
for market and for improvement, preparation for sale, and the profits 
that may be expected. The booklet is conciselj^ written, well and 
profusely illustrated, and should be in the hands of all who expect 
to grow this drug to supply the export trade, and to add a new and 
profitable industry to their farms and gardens, without interfering 
with the regular work. i2rao. 35 cents. 

Land Draining. 

By Manly Miles. A handbook for farmers on the principles and 
practice of draining, giving the results of his extended experience in 
laying tile drains. The directions for the laying out and the con- 
struction of tile drains will enable the farmer to avoid the errors of 
imperfect construction and the disappointment that must necessarily 
follow. Cloth, i2mo. $1.00. 

Practical Forestry. 

By Andrew S. Fuller. A treatise on the propagation, planting 
and cultivation, with descriptions and the botanical and popular 
names of all the indigenous trees of the United States, and notes on 
a large number of the most valuable exotic species. $1.50. 

Mushrooms. How to Grow Them. 

By William F.^lconer. This is the most practical work on the 
subject ever written, and the only book on growing mushrooms pub- 
lished in America. The author describes how he grows mushrooms, 
and how they are grown for profit by the leading market gardeners, 
and for home use by the most successful private growers. Engra- 
vings drawn from nature expressly for this work. Cloth. $1.00. 

The Propagation of Plants. 

By Andrew S. Fuller. Illustrated with numerous engravings. 
An eminently practical and useful work. Describing the process of 
hybridizing and crossing, and also the many different modes by 
which cultivated plants may be propagated and multiplied. Cloth, 
i2mo. $1.50. 

Silos, Ensilage, and Silage. 

By Manly Miles, M.D., F.R.M.S. A practical treati.se on the ensi- 
lage of fodder corn. Containing the most recent and authentic infor- 
mation on this important subject. Illustrated. Cloth, i2mo. 50 
cents. 

Play and Profit in My Garden. 

By E. P. Roe. The author takes us to his garden on the rocky hill- 
sides in the vicinity of West Point, and .shows us how out of it, after 
four years' experience, he evoked a profit of $1,000, and this while 
carrying on pa.storal and literary labor. It is very rarely that so 
much literary taste and skill are mated to so much agricultural ex- 
perience and good sense. Cloth, i2mo. $1.00. 

Grape Culturist. 

By Andrew S. Fuller. This is one of the very best of works on 
the culture of the hardy grapes, with full directions for all depart- 
ments of propagation, culture, etc., with 150 excellent engravings, 
illustrating planting, training, grafting, etc. Cloth, i2mo. $1.50. 



SEP 11 1901 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



OOOO^E?^!?!^ 



